


Somebody That I Used to Know

by Jenn0509



Category: X-Men Evolution, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: 1982, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Captivity, Child Abuse, Child Soldiers, Declan & Delilah MacTaggert-Xavier, Established Relationship, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Implied Underage, Kid Fic, Kidnapping, M/M, Mama-Moira, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Mother-Son Relationship, Motherhood, Parents & Children, Past Torture, Post - X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Post X-Men: First Class, Post-X-Men: Days of Future Past, Protective Erik, Serious Injuries, Set in Evolution, Sexual Content, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-03
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2017-12-10 08:08:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/783770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenn0509/pseuds/Jenn0509
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles sent Moira away at the end of First Class, erasing her memories, including those of how she got pregnant. Eighteen years later, a group of young mutants plan an escape from a top-secret facility. Among them, a blue eyed boy and an auburn haired girl.</p><p>Continuity: Bumping Origins: Wolverine back to the early/mid seventies, so Logan is already in the X-men by 1980, and having X-Men Evolution be in the 1980s, not 2000s. Ignoring X/X2/X3.</p><p>Update 10/30/14: Chapter 8 is all new!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Heartbeats

December 27,1962-  
Moira stared down at the test in her hands. Pregnant. It should have been impossible, she didn’t remember sleeping with anyone. The nurse in charge of her final screening before returning to the field tapped on the door, “Miss MacTaggert, are you alright in there?” Mutely, Moira opened the door and handed the test to the woman. The nurse looked down at the results of the test, “Oh, Miss MacTaggert, congratulations.”

Moira stared at the woman. “I don’t know who the father is. I don’t remember having sex with anyone. I was on a mission, I shouldn’t have been with anyone. That was almost two months ago, and I haven’t been with anyone since. I don’t understand.”

The nurse nodded understandingly, “You’ll be alright, Miss MacTaggert. All your initial medical evaluations showed no signs of nonconsensual intercourse, so you must have been with the father willingly. Who knows, maybe your memory will come back and then you and he can have a nice long laugh about this whole ordeal. He’s probably wondering where you got off to.” Moira wrung her hands together, “Here, sit down while I go get Dr. Jones. He’ll use our new ultrasound machine to confirm.”

Moira was silent as they had her lay back on a table and the doctor squished chilled gel out onto her stomach. He moved the plastic wand around on her stomach for a few minutes before spotting something on his screen. “You are pregnant, Miss MacTaggert. Look right here, that’s your baby.” Moira forced her head to turn, staring at the screen. “Would you like to hear the heartbeat?” He asked gently. She could hardly breath, looking at the very human figure, but she nodded, not trusting herself to speak. He pressed a button. The room seemed to fill with a surreal, too fast sound that could only be the baby’s heartbeat. Moira felt her heart jump into her throat, and she resisted the urge to run, focusing on the sound and the nurse’s calming hand on her shoulder. The doctor peered at the screen closer, moving the wand slightly, “Oh, there’s another one in there. I almost missed him, sneaky little thing.”

“A boy?” Moira heard herself ask.

The doctor nodded, “Looks like you’ve got a boy and a girl in there. I could be wrong, but make an appointment in a few weeks and we’ll see for sure. You’re about twelve weeks along. The nurse says you haven’t had any symptoms?” He asked, wiping the gel off her stomach.

Moira nodded slowly, “I’ve been off work for two months. I just thought I was getting a little out of shape. That’s what today was supposed to be about. I was supposed to get cleared to go back to work. I was finally going to be getting back to my life.”

The doctor smiled kindly, “Well, Miss MacTaggert, you’ve got two other people to think about now, but besides that, you’re physically fit. I’ll send my report to the address you gave earlier.”

Moira shook her head, “No, I’m done. It won’t matter anymore.” She let one hand rest on her stomach. “I can’t keep doing what I was doing. Keep my file private. It’s no one else’s concern anymore.”

She received a list of vitamins she needed to start taking and walked immediately to the CIA headquarters, her coat keeping her warm despite the light snow. The receptionist at the front recognized her, “Miss MacTaggert! So good to see you back!”

“I’m not back. I’m here to tender my resignation.” Moira said shortly.

It took about five minutes for her supervisor to come down the stairs, “Moira, what’s this nonsense about you resigning?”

She stared straight at the man, keeping her face controlled, “I’m moving to England. My mother’s suddenly taken ill, and I need to take care of her.”

He looked her over for a few seconds before responding, “Moira, are you sure this doesn’t have anything to do with your memory loss? We all understand that you endured some trauma, but that’s no reason to quit. You’re one of our most promising agents.”

“My mother needs me, sir. I’ll sign whatever forms I need to, but I have to be on a flight to London within the week.” She said the words firmly, leaving no room for him to try to quibble and plead with her. It took six hours to go through the paperwork, and when Moira finally returned to her apartment, she sunk into the chair next to her phone, dialing a number she hadn’t called in almost a year, “Mum?” She said, her voice breaking. She hadn’t even called her mother on Christmas, and felt all the more guilty for it considering why she was calling her mother now.

“Moira, is that ye? Are ye alright?” Her mother asked, her Scottish accent coming out.

“I need to come home.” Moira whispered into the receiver.

“Of course, Moira, sweetheart, mah doors ‘ve always been open tae ye, despite mah misgivings about yoor employ.” Moira Grace Kinross assured her daughter.

“I’ll be on the next flight then. Thank you, Mum.” Moira said, looking around her apartment and coming up with a list of the things she was going to need to pack.

“Moira, wait!” Grace said, sensing her daughter was about to hang up, “Please, tell meh what’s wrong.”

Moira took in a deep breath, “I’m pregnant.”

“Och, Moira.” Grace said, disappointment coursing through her. Her daughter was twenty six, but that didn’t stop Grace from feeling like she’d ruined her life.

“I don’t know who their father is.” Moira said softly.

“What?” Her mother exclaimed, wondering what had happened to the girl she’d raised.

“I was on a mission, but I don’t remember it. The whole thing is just gone. I remember going into this club following a subject in August, and then I woke up in a New York hospital in late October. The doctor says I’m twelve weeks along with twins. Mum, I can’t remember two months of my life, much less how I got pregnant! I can’t stay here, with Langley hanging over me. They’ll bring someone like you in to do terrible tests to find out the father, and I can’t have that done to my babies.” Moira explained in a rush, piling items she could reach closely together.

Grace let her daughter’s crack at geneticists slide, “Sweetheart, ye come home tae meh, and Ah’ll take care of ye. No one is goin’ tae do anything ye don’t want them tae do.” She paused. “Moira, do ye want to keep them?”

Moira choked out a laugh, “Mom, if I didn’t, I’d have just told Langley and been done with it. Something the nurse said, about no signs of anything nonconsensual, I can’t help but feel like I really cared about this man. If that’s true, I can’t not keep them. I’m their mother, regardless of how they came to be.” She sniffed, trying to hold back tears, “They’re so tiny, Mum.”

Grace smiled into the phone, “Ah can imagine. Call once you know when yoor flight’ll be in. Ah’ll get the spare room ready for ye and be at the airport tae pick ye up.”

“I love you, Mum.” Moira said, a tear finally running down her face, “Thank you, for always being there when I need you.”

Tears came to Grace’s eyes, “Moira, Ah’m yoor mother, Ah’ll be there whenever ye need meh as long as ye live. Ah love ye more than anythin’ in th’ world, and ‘at will never change.”

When Grace saw her daughter at the airport two days after, she could hardly believe her eyes. It had been four years since she’d laid eyes on her daughter, and in that time, the little girl from her memories was gone, replaced by the woman standing in front of her. They embraced, neither saying a word. Only when they were safely in the mansion Grace had called home since her divorce from Moira’s father did they speak. “I missed you, Mum.”

Grace smiled, “Ah missed ye tay, Moira.” She brushed her daughter’s dark red-brown hair out of her face, “We always were tay much alike. Ah became one of the first woman in my field an’ ‘en Ah begrudged ye fur tryin’ tae dae th’ same. Ah’m sorry it took this tae make us get over ‘at.” She held Moira’s hands in her own, “Tell me what ye want tae dae.”

“Can I stay here? Until I can get a place of my own?” Moira asked, sounding like the little girl Grace had chased out of her lab so many times for breaking test tubes.

“Moira, yoo’re mah only child. This house might as well be yoors already. Yoo’ll bide here as long as ye want. Besides, Ah’d like tae be near my grandchildren.” Grace laughed, kissing her daughter’s cheek, “Ah almost worried I’d ne’er have grandchildren, ye know? When yoor daughter calls ye up an’ tells ye she’s joinin’ th’ CIA, ye can’t be sure if she’s ever comin’ home again. Ah’ve worried about ye everyday, e’en when we were fighting.”

“That’s what being a mother’s about, isn’t it?” Moira asked, clinging to her mother’s hands.

Grace grinned, “Aye, Moira, that’s one thing. There are many facets tae bein’ someone’s mother, an’ ye pretty much have tae learn them on yer own.” Grace tipped Moira’s chin up with a gentle hand, “Yoo’ll dae great, Moira, Ah know you will.”

And she did. Six months after her move to London, June 17, 1963, Moira gave birth to her twins, naming them Declan and Delilah. Upon their birth, Declan held the first clue to their paternity. While Moira’s own chocolate brown eyes peered up at her from Delilah, Declan’s were bright blue. As they grew older, Moira would catch expressions on their faces that didn’t look like any she made, but struck her as familiar. The twins were both very smart, but considering her own intelligence and her own mother’s intelligence, they could have just been benefitting from their educational environment.

Although he was bright, Declan had trouble focusing in their nursery school, and would stir up trouble any chance he got when Delilah wasn’t around to circumvent his efforts. They seemed incredibly attuned to one another, and Moira often witnessed them having complete conversations with one another in their heads. 

She didn’t dwell too much on it, they were twins after all.

When the twins were two, Moira met a man named Joe Hawthorne, and it was only a short time before he moved in with Moira, Grace and the twins. They married in the spring of nineteen sixty-five, and after that, the twins became legally Declan and Delilah Hawthorne. Moira was happy, at least until her mother went away for a few months to conduct some research in America. Joe became violent in the absence of her mother. That was the first time he beat her. By the time Declan and Delilah were six, Moira was done, and with the help of her mother, she kicked Joe to the curb.

The next two years settled into an easy pattern, and they were truly happy. Declan and Delilah grew more and more each day, and Grace often joked about their brains being wired differently. Moira pushed the thoughts aside, but someone saw Declan do something extraordinary, something he and his sister had sworn each other to secrecy about. 

September 8, 1970, when they were eight years old, Declan and Delilah vanished without a trace on their way home from school.


	2. Captivity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your comments are like rainbows and kudos the pots of gold at the end!
> 
> Now introducing, Delilah and Declan!

November 3, 1979-

Sixteen year old Delilah Hawthorne almost never looked up when the door to her room opened, she didn’t need to. She knew the tenor of every mind in the facility, and would have her arm held out before they even asked her for another blood draw. When her door opened late on a Saturday afternoon, however, her eyes rocketed to the door. Next to one of her usual captors, a staunch man named William, but called ‘Pug’ behind his back, was a child no more than eight years old herself. Children weren’t all that unusual a sight in the facility, but she had never seen this one before.

The little waif stood trembling next to Pug, a mass of unruly black hair hiding a face that was no doubt just as darkly colored as the arms the child was hugging itself with. The thin limbs were ebony in color, but white where pencil thin fingers clutched in fear.

“Delilah, this is Parker. Parker, this is Delilah, she’s going to be your new mother.” Pug said stiffly, ushering the child farther into the room, anticipating the lash coming from his older captive.

“It’s Lila.” She hissed through clenched teeth, standing up. She was taller than him, and knowing his every thought, she knew his fear of her being close, so she encroached intentionally on his territory, replacing his hand on the child’s back with her own, “You can’t replace what you took from me.”

He started to protest, treating her like a child, “Now, Delilah, there’s no need to be angry about that. You’re young. It was for your own good.”

Lila shot him a glare and scooped the child into her arms, allowing the poor little thing to derive some comfort from her touch, “My own good? How can you really believe that was for my own good?”

He shook his head, his words echoing his thoughts, “I told them this was a bad idea. Give her back.” He held out his pudgy arms, but wouldn’t look up into Lila’s face. He knew if he did, she’d have him slit his own throat.

“No.” She snapped harshly, regretting the tone when the child in her arms whimpered in fear. “You’ll leave her with me.”

Pug paused in the doorway, “I am sorry, Delilah, truly.”

He was, she could tell, he was genuinely sorry for what they’d done to her. It softened her anger a bit, allowing her to ask, “Where’s Garrett?”

Pug looked at his shoes, “I don’t know. You know they wouldn’t let anyone who knew come near you.”

Lila knew that, but a small part of her hoped that he might know something, “Do you know if he’s alright?”

“They’ve increased his training. That’s all I know.” He sighed, “Just focus on Parker, Delilah. You’ll be better off if you don’t dwell on the past.”

When the door shut behind him, Lila started rocking the tiny body clinging to her, “Hush, Parker. Save your tears.”

“I want to go home!” A small voice cried, echoing the only thoughts that had been going through the child’s mind since she’d entered the room.

“I know, love.” Lila said, rubbing circles into the child’s back, “I do too, but this is home for now.”

“I miss my momma.” Parker whispered.

Lila sat her down on the bed she’d slept in for the last eight years, “I miss mine too,” she said with a sad smile. Honey colored eyes looked up at her, framed by tears and dirt. “There’s a good girl,” she cooed, wetting a washcloth to clean the filthy child up, “I’ll keep you safe, Parker. You’ll see your momma again.”

In the innocent way children do, Parker said, “You sound funny. Why do you say my name like that?”

Lila smiled, “I’m from a place called England. That’s where I lived with my Mum and Granna before I was brought here.” There were only a few phrases and words that usually brought her accent about, and in Parker’s name, she dropped the first ‘r’, where the American pronunciation would have included it.

“I’m from Seattle.” Parker said softly, warming up quickly to Lila.

Lila knew how frail Parker was, she’d been the same way when she had been brought to the facility. She was also determined not to let Parker end up the way she was. She was so angry. Only Garrett had ever been able to assuage her anger, and he was gone, off to some far corner of the facility completely separate from her. The walls of her cell were lined with lead, keeping her from reading the minds of anyone outside, but she was afforded more luxuries than some of the other test subjects, her own bathroom and kitchen.

Nothing she could hurt herself with of course, she was limited to a microwave that had been specially made for the internal parts to be inaccessible, and everything else in the small apartment was smooth-edged and screwed to the floor or walls. They’d learned the hard way during the first few months of her captivity that she was by no means a weakling. As an eight year old, Lila had bashed one of her captors over the head with the metal folding chair in an effort to escape one night. That effort had failed, but she’d tried several times after to escape using items in the room before they finally came in and safety proofed everything.

The clanging of the lock on the door as it shut behind Pug reminded Lila of what had changed in the last months. Before, she was only locked up in her room during the usual lock down hours or when someone wanted to talk about something without being over heard by the telepath, her brother was usually always with her. For the last four months, she had been in seclusion, and hadn’t left her room except for heavily monitored training sessions. Her brother’s bed on the other side of the room had remained painfully empty.

Little Parker reminded her of how much she missed human contact. “I’ve never been to Seattle.” She said after a while, once most of the girl’s body had stilled.

“It’s cold.” Parker offered while Lila rubbed a particularly stubborn smudge of dirt off the girl’s dark skin.

Lila plastered on a smile, getting a sense of the climate in Seattle from Parker’s brought forward memory, “It’s a lot like England then. Rainy and cold, but beautiful. I used to live in a castle.”

“Like a princess?” Parker marveled.

Lila laughed softly, “I suppose so.”

“Is a handsome prince going to come save us?” Parker asked.

Lila bit her lip, “I don’t know, Parker. We just might have to make our own way out.”

“I wanna go home.” Parker whined, her lower jaw trembling.

Lila put the washcloth aside and put her hands on the sides of Parker’s face, forcing the little girl to look her in the eyes, “Parker, you have to be strong now, okay? I know you’re scared. I am too. Everyday, but as long you’re with me, no one will hurt you. I promise.”

That was all she could really say to comfort the girl, and, while her thoughts betrayed her, Parker put on like she was actually reassured. Lila glanced up at the skylight fifteen feet above her head, “It’s dark out. It must be late for you. Why don’t we go to bed?”

Parker nodded silently, and let herself be tucked into the warm covers of Lila’s bed, “Where’re you going to sleep?”

Lila read her thoughts and smiled, “I was going to take my brother’s bed, but I can sleep here with you if you’d like.” That got a more enthusiastic nod, and so Lila took off her shoes and joined the girl. They got comfortable, Parker firmly situating herself against Lila’s chest, pressing her cold feet to Lila’s warm legs. Lila wrapped her arms around the child, wishing she could spare her from the horrors that would no doubt befall her during her time in the facility.

The next morning, Lila found the door conspicuously unlocked. Wary of the sudden freedom, she bathed and fed Parker before she ever approached the door. She half expected to be swarmed by guards when they stepped out, but no one came running. Parker clutched her right hand tightly as they moved down the short corridor and into the open recreation area.

This was where Lila had spent most of her free time during the last eight years. Modern examples of brightly colored furniture were splattered throughout the white washed room, making any eye that looked upon the whole spectacle for too long hurt. Someone in the last five years had decided that the children they were experimenting on needed more color in their lives, and it was true. The objectively garish display actually was a welcome relief to the continual grayscale that permeated most of the facility. The walls were white, the floors a lifeless gray carpet, and all inhabitants wore gray shirts and black pants with white cloth shoes.

Parker had yet to be clothed in the usual fare, so the dark little girl dressed in a muddy pink and purple girl’s track suit stuck out far more than Lila did. Dozens of eyes were on them the second they came into view, and silence fell across the room. Broken by a single hushed voice, “Lila!”

Declan was on her in a split second, appearing directly in front of her and throwing his arms around her. She grunted at the sudden impact, her free arm going around him to hug him fiercely. “Dec!”

“I was so worried! I thought they’d killed you. God, Lila. Why did they take you away?” He said, mouth running a mile a minute, looking her over for any visible injury.

“I’d rather not talk about it. I’m fine.” Lila could feel Parker trembling next to her and shrugged Declan back, “Dec, this is Parker, she’s new.”

Declan looked down at the little girl and smiled good naturedly, but Parker shrieked, turning her face into the black cloth of Lila’s pants, “Where did he come from?”

Declan and Lila stared at each other in shock, and Lila could have kicked herself for being so stupid. She got onto her knees in front of the little girl, ignoring the crowd and their growing thoughts, “Have you ever heard of the Coven?” Parker shook her head, “Well, Parker, people of the Coven are special. We have special talents, we can do things the rest of the world could only imagine. I can read minds, and Declan here, he’s my twin brother, he can teleport. If you’re here, it means you’re like us. You are a member of the Coven.”

Parker stared wide eyed at Lila for several moments, “I didn’t mean to!”

“What? What didn’t you mean to do?” Lila asked, trying not to let the girl work herself up again.

“The doggy, he was just trying to tell me how to get him home! I didn’t mean to talk to him, but I couldn’t help myself!” Parker sobbed.

Lila cleared the tears off her face as they came, “It’s not your fault, Parker. These things, they come to some of us at about your age. We are chosen to be special. Your gift is not your fault.”

Parker sniffed several times, looking up at Declan, “Are you the handsome prince?”

He laughed, “I guess I could be a prince, Little Dove.”

“Can you get on your horse and tell my Mommy I’m sorry for getting caught?” Parker asked him.

Lila hissed, “Getting here is not your fault. Parker, we aren’t meant to be caged, hidden away like this. It’s cruel, and one day, we’ll get out.”

“Lila.” Declan hissed warningly. The last time he had heard her talk like that had been the night she and Garrett had been dragged away screaming. In Declan’s mind, Lila saw the events relayed like they were happening right in front of her:

She and Garrett had been sitting together, Lila nestled in the ‘v’ of his legs, his arms wrapped securely around her waist. Declan hadn’t known why they’d been so quiet, just sitting in the corner by themselves all day.

When their friends had come into the room after their evening distribution of rations, the plan to escape had been discussed heatedly. Lila and Garrett, usually the two quietest and least likely to voice their thoughts had been suddenly animated, pushing the plan ahead. Declan hadn’t known that they hadn’t just been thinking of escape for themselves, but for the child they’d made together.

They were young, and hadn’t given any thought to what they were doing when they’d had sex after her sixteenth birthday. Three years older than her, Garrett had been steadfast in his desire to wait until she was sixteen to move past that final frontier. Lila had been the impatient one. She and Garrett had been together since she was thirteen, and having been taken when she was so young and denied maternal guidance, Lila knew virtually nothing about sex other than what her hormonally charged body told her. They’d fought for months about it, Lila pointing out that in the back of his mind, Garrett wanted nothing more than to be with her, his own hormones long pent up. He’d won though, and only realized their mistake a month and a half later when a shaking Lila had told him her period was late.

They had two weeks before one of their watchers noticed it in Lila’s blood panels and told Leader. Even four months later, the night still rang true in Lila’s mind. They’d been talking when no less than ten guards busted into the room, pushing everyone out of the way so they could get to Garrett and Lila. Garrett had thrown her behind him, spreading his arms out to defend her, but without a weapon in hand, he hadn’t really stood a chance. Most of the men employed by the Facility were ex-military, and though it took four of them to get Garrett down, they did get him. They went for Lila next, covering her eyes with a blindfold, and no amount of Garrett screaming could get them to stop. What happened once they left that room was far worse than anything they’d ever done before.

They’d killed her baby. Lila wasn’t sure how, and was grateful for that small relief. They’d strapped her to one of the tables in the medical bay and knocked her out with drugs. When she came to, the doctors were gone, leaving only a nurse who had taken care of her after the fact, and only had the knowledge of what Lila had lost.

Lila had been locked in her room ever since, and food added to the back side of the refrigerator had vastly limited her human interaction. For four months, she’d only had contact with the nurses that came to draw her blood every morning. Apparently they’d decided her punishment was over. It would never be over though, not really.

Leader had arrived, a tall imposing asian man built like a brick wall, “Delilah, how good to see you back with your friends.”

Lila shivered, but stood straight, acknowledging him the only way she knew how, “Leader.”

He chuckled, looking down at Parker, “Hello, little one. Were you frightened last night? I’m terribly sorry about that.” He held a large box towards them, and looked at Lila, silently ordering her to encourage the child to take his proffered box.

Parker did indeed look to Lila for guidance, and Lila cringed internally as she urged the girl forward, “It’s alright, Parker. It’s just a gift.”

Inside the box was a puppy of indiscernible breeding, probably something one of Leader’s men had picked up at the pound or off the side of the highway, but it was cute, and all Parker needed to break out into a wide smile. She then proceeded to have a conversation with the dog, and through Parker's mind, Lila could understand every whine and whimper the dog uttered. 

Leader looked up at her, grinning, pleased with himself, “Delilah, you don’t mind, do you?”

“Not like I’ve got much of a choice.” Lila growled.

Leader smiled, but it was anything but friendly, “Right! Feeling well I hope? That was an awfully traumatic thing you put yourself through. You really should have known better. You’re a smart girl, after all.”

Lila launched at him, “You bastard!”

Declan grabbed her before she reached Leader, “Lila, no!”

She struggled against her brother, but her four months of idleness had left her weak, “Let me go! You don’t know what he did!” Declan managed to grab her wrists and lock them across her chest, stilling her violent motions. Feeling hopelessly adrift in her own agony, Lila looked up at Leader, trying to school her anger, “Please, let me see Garrett.”

Leader continued smiling, “Sorry, Delilah. You’ve been a bad girl, and bad girl’s don’t get treats. You’ll see Garrett when you’ve been a good girl. Assuming he wants to see you that is. After all, you killed his baby.”

Lila resumed her struggling and this time, Declan was too stunned by Leader’s words to hold her back. She had her hands around Leader’s throat and him on his back, “What did you tell him? Tell me!!”

Guards pulled her off of him, and he laughed, “Always a pleasure, Delilah.” Leader looked at Declan, “I’d keep your sister on a short leash if you want her to be able to still have playtime with you and your friends. She’s terribly unstable, poor creature.”

“Bastard!” Lila screamed at his back as he left the room.

The guards let her go and she sunk to the floor at Declan’s side, and he joined her moments later, his knees slamming into the tile, staring at her in shock, “What did he mean by that, Lila? What baby?”

Lila looked up at her twin brother, her eyes lifeless, “I was pregnant. Now I’m not. I sure as hell didn’t choose not to be though. That’s a lie.”

Declan looked just as horrified as she felt, “Lila, I didn’t know. Is that why they dragged you off that night?”

“Yes. I haven’t seen Garrett since. None of you have.” She didn’t even need to ask, the instant she and Leader had started trading words, almost every member of the group started thinking about their version of that night, the last time they’d seen Lila and Garrett. She could tell what Declan was thinking, that she’d never looked so scary. She forced a small smile, “I am glad to be out of my room though.” She touched the side of his face, “I missed you.”

Declan’s face softened, and he hugged her, “I’ll always be here for you, Lila, anywhere.” He gave her a small nod, and his thoughts told her what he truly meant. He would help her escape, he would do anything for her.

“Thank you, Dec.” She shot her eyes to where Parker was distracting herself with the puppy. “I have a plan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!  
> -Jenn


	3. Chapter 3

Two Years Later: January 18,1982-  
“Ready, Parker?” Eighteen year old Lila asked for the thousandth time.

Ten year old Parker rolled her eyes, “I’ve got this.”  
 “Remember, once they move in the main room, run.” Lila whispered.

“I know.” Parker hissed back.

Lila pressed a kiss to the side of Parker’s head, “Be safe.”

Parker smiled, “I will Lila.” Noise rose from the opposite side of the building. Lila was suddenly reluctant to let the girl go. For the last two years, she’d protected Parker, nurtured her, and now she was sending her out into a world she knew nothing about. Parker sensed her foster mother’s hesitation, “I’ll be fine, Momma.” She said with a gentle smile, her hazel eyes sparking.

Lila nodded, her lips pressed into a thin line as she watched Parker slip through the hole they’d busted in the wall, her dog following right behind. As soon as Parker was clear, Lila set to fixing the hole, leaving only the faintest hint that it had ever existed in the first place. It had taken two years to be able to figure out the escape plan, and it all centered on Parker’s memory of the outside world. She had revealed to them all that the outside world had their own name for them, Mutants. Her memory of the lead proponent for mutants, Charles Xavier, was central. While Lila now knew the face as well, she wasn’t small enough to go through the only exit they could manage to improvise, and the whole operation had fallen squarely on Parker.

Lila joined the others in the main room, signaling that they could all start backing off slightly to let the guards get them all under control. Lila got a good swing in at one guard and let him toss her to the ground in revenge. He then had to deal with Declan dropping from above onto his shoulders, “Hands off my sister!” He felled the guard, but another one closed a collar around his neck, grounding him.

One by one, the group of young mutants were contained. They were arranged in the room in lines to await Leader’s eminent arrival. He made them wait for four hours. No one had noticed Parker was gone though, so Lila and the others were more than prepared for whatever he did to them. They all knew the risks when the plan had been formed, but the most important point had been getting Parker out.

They sat with their eyes downcast, and no one looked up when the door finally opened. “Hello, children, nice afternoon?” The tension was palatable, and no one responded. A hand slid under Lila’s chin, tipping her head up. Leader smiled down at her, “Delilah, would you like to explain to me what happened here tonight?” She jerked her chin out of his grasp and shook her head, not wanting to speak out of fear of yelling and making things worse.

“Maybe she’ll talk to me.” Lila’s eyes flicked to the form behind Leader. A hard look on his face, was Garrett. His pale blue eyes seemed more like ice than the sky blue she’d always compared them to, and his hair was cropped close to his skull, an exact replica of Leader’s. There had been no kindness in his voice.

The group burst into hushed whispers. “Quiet!” Leader growled, “You are all in so much trouble. I wouldn’t add to your punishments by chattering.” He smiled at Lila, the kindly facade returning. “Now Delilah, would you rather talk to me or Garrett? I know you are responsible for any mishaps here because none of them are smart enough to stage an escape attempt like that.”

“It was my idea!” Declan yelled from his spot across the room.

Leader rolled his eyes, “Declan, you are not the brainy one of the Hawthorne twins, Delilah is.” He was wrong, but they’d staged it like that the whole time they’d been in captivity. Declan was every bit as intelligent as his twin, even more so. Leader grabbed Lila’s arm and hauled her to her feet. “Let the rest of them go back to their rooms for the night. Punishment training starts in the morning. No meals for any of them, and the collars stay on. Delilah will be coming with me for a chat. I’ll see to it that she makes it back to her room afterwards.”

Leader led her down the hallway, Garrett following stonily, and Lila flinched every time her brother screamed from behind them, “Lila! Lila! Bring her back you bastard! Lila!”

Leader pushed her into one of the rooms they used to contain new victims. He looked to Garrett. “Take her back to her room once you’re done with her, and keep in mind that I’ll be watching. Try not to hurt her too badly, she’s valuable after all.”

The door closed, leaving Lila with a man she wasn’t sure she knew anymore. He sighed heavily, leaning against the wall across from the chair she occupied. “I’d forgotten how beautiful you are.”

Lila dared look up at him, hope blooming in her chest. There was nothing in his blue eyes but hate though. Her voice trembled, “I’ve missed you so much.”

“Why?” He asked harshly.

Lila was missing something, and her eyebrows knitted together, “Because I love you and I haven’t seen you in years.”

Garrett was suddenly right in front of her, “You love me? That’s a load of bull and you know it, Lila. You were too busy fucking Brian behind my back to love me.”

“Brian?” Lila asked, growing more confused as the seconds went on. Her age, Brian had been taken out of the facility just weeks before Lila and Garrett had been separated. Lila had been friendly to him, but had most certainly never had sex with him.

He sneered down at her, “Yeah, the father of that baby you told me was mine. You just used us both, didn’t you? He knocked you up and you had me trying to escape for you and your bastard. Then the moment they put a little pressure on you, you got rid of it.”

Lila stood, forcing him back a step, anger overwhelming her, “Those are lies. I never touched Brian, and that was our baby that they took from me. I did not agree to that. I never would have. You know me Garrett, better than anyone, even my twin brother. Does that sound like something I would do?”

Garrett was shaking, his hands balled into fists, and Lila was grateful that there were no weapons in the room. He’d have killed her. “I don’t know. Leader showed me video of you and Brian...”

“It’s not real.” Lila assured, cutting him off. “Garrett, with all the things we can do, don’t you think there are some people out there who can make you see things that aren’t really there?”

He stared at her, his features softening slightly, “Lila, I...”

The door slammed open, and a furious Leader crashed in, “Where did she go?”

Lila’s eyes widened unwittingly in fear, he’d realized Parker was gone. She edged up in the chair, searching for a way out. She’d never seen Leader so mad, and she’d pulled a lot of stunts in the last ten years of her confinement. “Who?” Garrett asked, his confused thoughts circulating in Lila’s head like a brain freeze.

“Parker Masen. Delilah, tell me where she is now!” Leader screamed, stepping farther into the room.

“I don’t know.” She said cooly. He lunged at her, and only her years of training at his hands kept her out of his grasp. Although her hands were still bound, Lila grasped the back of the metal chair and flipped herself over the back, coming close to kicking Leader and putting the chair between them. All his training hadn’t gone to waste after all.

She underestimated him though, and when she looked back at him, he was reaching out to her with a fist. It slammed into her face and spun her around. For an instant, she thought he’d broken her jaw, but a quick touch to it proved that he hadn’t. “Where is she?” He yelled, jerking her back up by her hair. “You will look at me when I’m talking to you!”

She saw Garrett’s hand on her shoulder, “Leader, don’t hurt her. Like you said, she’s valuable.”

Leader spun around, punching Garrett in the face, “You do not tell me what to do!”

Garrett lunged at the man, finally choosing his side by the look on Lila’s face. It did nothing. Leader didn’t move, and just laughed, proceeding to pummel Garrett, forcing him to the ground. Lila screamed at him to stop, but he didn’t, and they realized at the same time when Garrett lost consciousness. Lila backed into the far corner, her eyes wide in fear. “Come on, Delilah, don’t be afraid. You need to be punished for what you’ve done. We protect you from the outside world, and this is how you repay us? Silly little girl.” He grabbed her bound hands, and drug her from the room, locking the door behind him, trapping Garrett in the room. She knew she was in serious trouble when he called for all of the others to brought out of their rooms. In front of them all, he attached a chain to the manacles on her wrists, looping it over the railing of his observation deck. He pressed her back to the wall, “You deserve this, Delilah.” He said before he started pulling down on the chain.

Declan started screaming when Lila’s shoulder blades started getting pulled out of their sockets. She could tell that it was only her slim build that kept them from dislocating completely. She’d pulled herself together, prepared to hang there for as long as Leader wanted her to, and then he pulled out a black whip from the belt he always wore, snapping it in the air next to her, “Scream all you’d like. It will help the lesson stick.” He instructed before turning it on her.  
\--------------------------

Four hours Earlier-

Parker was running faster than she’d ever run in her life, letting her dog, Fluffy, lead her with his superior senses. She had no idea where they were, but from his runs outside with the guards, Fluffy knew the way out of the Facility’s grip. They ran full tilt until they suddenly burst into civilization. Parker stood gasping for a few moments, looking around at the tall, beautiful buildings that made her feel so much smaller. She went directly to the building marked ‘Police’.

A woman who looked just a little older than Lila saw her first, “Sweetie, can I help you?”

Parker nodded, “My name is Parker Masen, I’m ten years old, and I was kidnapped on my way home from school in Seattle two years ago. I’ve been held captive against my will, and it is imperative that I speak to Charles Xavier.” She’d gone over those words so many times with Lila that they hardly took any thought.

The woman gapped at her for a few seconds, “Sweetie, if this is some sort of ploy to get your parent’s attention...”

“It’s not.” Parker said coldly, trying to imitate the assured way Lila always spoke with, “Parker Masen, Seattle, Washington. Look me up.”

The woman, who’s badge read Detective Lowe, went to the department computer, her fingers flying over the keys. “Oh my God.” She whispered, staring at the screen before whipping around to look at Parker, “You are Parker Masen.”

Parker nodded, “Yes, and now I must speak to Charles Xavier.”

Detective Lowe nodded back at her slowly, “Okay, let me call the main desk of the school he runs. They should know how to get in contact with him.” She picked up her phone and typed a few more keys into the computer, dialing the numbers she found into the phone, “Hello, yes, this is Detective Susan Lowe with the Billings Police Department. I have a young girl here who says she needs to speak with Mr. Xavier.” The woman paused, “Mr. McCoy, this girl is Parker Masen. She was kidnapped from Seattle two years ago. She just showed up in my station, told me who she was, and that she needed to speak with Mr. Xavier.”

Parker held out her hand, gesturing for the phone. Warily, Susan handed it to her, “Mr. McCoy?”

The voice on the other end of the phone was gruff, but kind, “Yes, Parker?”

“You need to help them. I’m not the only one that was kidnapped, and we’re all special.” She hoped he caught on to what she was saying.

He did, “You’re mutants?”

“Yes, sir.” She replied.

“How many of you are there?” He asked, motioning for Storm to join him.

“Two dozen, maybe. It’s hard to tell, we aren’t all kept together. Lila says there used to be others, but they aren’t there anymore.” Parker told him, grateful for Fluffy’s warm body pressed against her leg.

“Who’s Lila?” Hank questioned, scrawling the name on the paper in front of him.

“Her name is Delilah Hawthorne. They gave me to her right after they kidnapped me. She’s kept me safe, taught me everything she knows, and she orchestrated my escape. Please, Mr. McCoy, you have to help them. I’m afraid Leader will hurt her once he finds out I’m gone.” Parker’s voice was shaking.

Hank typed the name into the computer in front of him. Results flooded in of the missing person’s case. Twins Delilah and Declan Hawthorne had been kidnapped in London ten years ago. They’d be almost nineteen years old. “Is Declan there too?”

Parker nodded, forgetting for a minute that he couldn’t see her. “Yes, he’s one of us too. Please, you have to help.”

“We will, Parker.” He assured, signaling Ororo to get the team ready. “Do you remember where they’re being held?”

“Fluffy can take us back.” Parker told him steadfastly.

Hank was confused, “Fluffy?”

“My dog. He’ll remember. He’s the one who led me away.” She said, running her free hand through the mutt’s hair.

“You speak to animals?” Hank guessed.

“Yes, sir.”

Hank sighed, there was no telling what would greet them at that complex. “Okay, give the phone back to Detective Lowe.” She did as she was told, and he explained to the detective that he would be by in less than an hour to pick Parker up and take her home. That was a lie though. He couldn’t take the girl home. Amongst the results of her kidnapping had been what happened after. Her father had been killed overseas and in her grief, her mother had committed suicide. Parker Masen was an orphan.

When the Blackbird landed, Hank and Ororo left the team to pick Parker up. She was standing on the front steps of the police department, a weedy little girl in a grey shirt, black pants, and white shoes, all muddied from her escape. Hank approached her cautiously, although he was using an image inducer similar to the one Kurt wore to school and looked normal, he wasn’t sure how the little girl would react to his bulky form.

She blinked a few times before a smile broke out on her face and she launched herself at him, squeezing tightly, “Thank you!”

Ororo laughed, “It’s what we do, little one.”

Parker went quiet, looking up at Ororo with wide hazel eyes, “You’re going to help me save Lila, right? You won’t make me leave them there?”

“Of course we’ll save them.” Hank assured her, taking one of her small hands in his, “Let’s go right now. One of our students, Jean, she’ll be able to tell where you came from.”

“I can tell you where I came from.” Parker said, pointing a finger at the forest nearby, “I ran for about an hour through the trees. Fluffy knows how to get back.”

Hank finally looked at the dog, and felt his eyebrows raise. The dog was huge, bulky and menacing, impossible to describe as one breed or another, but obviously enamored with the little girl he kept so closely too. “Alright, let’s go then.” He looked to Ororo. “You follow in the Blackbird, I’ll stay with her.”

The dog bolted into the forest at Parker’s whispered command, and they followed closely. Hank was amazed by the ten year old’s endurance, and when he asked how she could keep up so well, she said, “It’s part of the training. We run on treadmills as long as we can, and if we fall, we get beaten. After a few weeks, it doesn’t even hurt so bad anymore.”

“What else do they do there?” He asked, fearing the answer.

Parker glanced over at him, not breaking stride, “They teach us how to kill.” They ran in silence after that, Hank hardly being able to imagine the little girl next to him being capable of killing, “Stop!” She cried, skidding to a stop next to the dog. “He says they’re looking for me.” She looked up at Hank, “Are you alright with letting them find us? I can say I flagged you down on the side of the highway.”

He peered at the girl, she was more covert than he’d given her credit for, “That will work.” In any case, it would give him a chance to get in so he could let the team in.

Parker’s plan went off without a hitch, and he found himself with his hands tied behind his back being led into a stark building. What killed him was how they detained Parker, snapping a metal inhibitor collar around her neck and binding her tightly. They tranquilized the dog after he tried to attack one of the men to get to Parker, tossing the animal in the bed of the all-terrain vehicle they were driving.

Things in the center had obviously change drastically since Parker had escaped. Hank could see the group of captives, all huddled together, the silver of their inhibitor collars glinting in the light. The room was decorated with brightly colored furniture, as if to brighten the mood, but what the captives were all staring at could in no way be lessened. There was a boy face down on the ground, his light brown hair matted with blood, unmoving. About six feet in front of him, a girl was hung by her wrists against the wall, and a large man was standing to the side, holding a whip, “Look closely, children. This is what happens when you disobey me.”

Parker trembled next to Hank, staring at the girl, “Lila.”

Hank looked at the girl again, she was bleeding, long thin lines carved into her torso, stripped of clothing, her long auburn brown hair the only thing keeping her covered. With her hands hung above her, Hank could see she was already having trouble breathing, drifting in and out of consciousness. He pressed the button on his image inducer to signal the team to attack. The girl didn’t have long before she stopped waking up and slipped into a coma before her body finally gave up the struggle to breath.

Since the guards that had captured him hadn’t taken him as a mutant, they hadn’t put a collar around his neck, and in one swift movement, he snapped the collar around Parker’s neck and grabbed the nearest captive he could, doing the same, throwing off any guards who tried to stop him. The rest of the team came in, taking down the guards easily.

Ororo dropped to the side of the boy on the ground, rolling him over, revealing the face of an adult Declan Hawthorne. She pulled the collar apart, and his eyes snapped open, the warm blue color zipping around in his eye sockets. “Lila!” He cried, before vanishing from Ororo’s arms. He reappeared next to his sister, trying to find some way to lift her without hurting her. He stooped under her, putting her legs over his shoulders and straightened, letting her body rest against his head, “Please, someone get her down. She can’t breath!”

Ororo flew up to the chains holding the girl’s upper body suspended and broke them. She sagged against her brother, Logan coming to help lay the girl on the floor, his hands gentle. Declan pulled his own bloody shirt off and draped it over the top part of his sister’s chest, preserving at least some of her modesty. Her body was heaving, her lungs injured severely, but Declan held her in his lap, making sure she didn’t choke on her own blood. “You alright, Flash?” Logan asked.

Declan shook his head, “No, she’s in pain. It’s excruciating.”

“You can feel her pain?” Ororo asked. Empathy and teleportation seemed an odd mutant power pair.

“She’s projecting.” He said, wiping a bit of blood away that was dripping from his own nose, “Lila’s a telepath. She doesn’t mean to be hurting me, I swear.” His blue eyes were tortured, and Logan took a good whiff. Yes, there was something very familiar about the two in front of him.

“Hank!” Ororo called when Lila started moaning.

Hank struggled to their sides, leaning over the girl, “We need to get her back to the school.”

“Where is it?” Declan asked, coughing in unison with his sister.

“Westchester, New York.” Ororo said.

Declan looked thoughtful for a second. “Okay, I can do that.” He held a hand out to Hank, “You’re the doctor, right?” Hank nodded, “Take my hand, and we’ll be wherever you need to be to help my sister.”

“Listen, Flash, we know how teleportation works, you have to know exactly where you’re going and you couldn’t possibly go that far anyway.” Logan said, wanting to get the girl to the Blackbird as soon as possible.

Declan’s eyes went dark, “My name’s Declan, not Flash. I don’t know what kind of teleporter you’ve worked with, but I can tell you that I can get there. You learn to stretch your powers when someone you love is being threatened. Take. My. Hand.” Hank took the boy’s hand, and felt himself being compressed painfully before finding himself standing in his lab, the boy next to him, seemingly unencumbered by his sister’s weight, “Where do you want her?”


	4. Chapter 4

Hank gestured to the empty medical table and set to work, slowly edging the girl’s shoulders back into a normal position and putting a tube down her throat to help her breath, sedating her after Declan confirmed she had no allergies to drugs. Declan helped as he could, staying calm despite the dire appearance of his twin. Several times, she went pale and the heart monitor went crazy, causing Hank to stop his procedure and get her heart rate back under control.

The rest of the team returned with twenty one kidnapped mutants, including one who had almost been beaten to death. They’d found the older male in a locked room, the walls covered in blood splatter. Declan took one glance at the bruised body and looked up at Hank, “His name’s Garrett Cann. He can learn how to use any weapon perfectly in a matter of minutes. He’s lethal. Until today, he’d been absent for two years. I’d tie him down.”

Jean placed restraints on the man as she went about cleaning and suturing his wounds. Hank was almost done with Lila when he saw Parker standing in the doorway, “Momma?”

Declan flashed the girl a gentle smile, “She’ll be fine, Little Dove. You just wait, give her a few days and she’ll be up chasing you around like old times.” Hank was amazed by the boy, who could be so cold one instant and then be total goo the next. Parker nodded and settled herself into a nearby chair, her dog limping in to lay in front of her. Declan looked back at Hank, lowering his voice, “She will be okay, won’t she?”

Hank nodded slowly, “Getting the pressure off her lungs helped tremendously. Although these wounds look nasty, most of them didn’t cause anything more than surface damage. She won’t be running around tomorrow, but she’ll be awake.”

“We heal faster than normal people.” Declan said offhandedly, kissing the back of his sister’s hand. “Besides, she’s Lila. She’d never leave me.”

Hank covered all her wounds with gauze and draped a blanket over her body, leaving Parker and her brother to watch over her. “Where are the rest of them?” He asked Ororo.

“Most of them are calling their parents. I called Charles, he’ll be back tonight. He said he’s very pleased with how things went on such short notice.” Ororo informed him.

“Someone should call Declan and Lila’s parents.” Hank said.

Ororo nodded, “Their mother lives in England. I already called. I didn’t tell her that we’d found them, but that she needed to get on the earliest flight to New York she could manage.”

Those of the captive children who’s parents lived close were whisked back home before nightfall, amid the joyful cries of parent who hadn’t laid eyes on their children in years. Some of the older ones, however, set out on their own for home, hoping their parents would still recognize them. By the time Charles arrived, there were only a half dozen left, including the four huddled in the medical bay. He soothed the two trembling children, his calm demeanor and genuine kindness being something they were unused to.

“You said there are four more?” Charles asked.

Logan nodded, “Orphaned little girl who talks to animals, half grown telepath, her twin teleporter brother, and some weapons kid.”

Hank rolled his eyes, “Ten year old Parker Masen, eighteen year old twins Delilah and Declan Hawthorne, and twenty one year old Garrett Cann. I can’t find a missing person file on Cann, so it’s possible his parents were somehow involved in the operation. The man the kids called ‘Leader’ escaped in the fighting. When we came in, he was torturing Delilah.”

“She’s waking up.” Came a soft voice, and the adults turned to see a weary Declan had found his way to them, “Can you take that tube out? She won’t like it a bit.”

Hank nodded, “As long as her lungs have fully re-inflated, she’ll be fine without it. I’ll go check in just a minute.”

“I’m hungry.” Parker mumbled from Declan’s side, holding his hand tightly.

Declan knelt next to her, smiling gently, “Come now, Little Dove, ask nicely, and I’m sure these nice people will take you to the kitchen. They might even have something for Fluffy to munch on. I’ll come get you if Lila wakes before you return, okay?”

Parker nodded, and looked up at the Xavier School elite, “May I have some dinner, please?” Her accent was endearing, having in the last two years taken on an edge of the British accent of her surrogate parents.

Ororo held out a hand, “Of course you may, little one.”

Declan held their combined hands half way to Ororo’s in encouragement, smiling when Parker took the woman’s hand. Ororo led her down the dimly lit hallway, Fluffy following close behind. Declan looked at the others, “She’s not usually so shy. Lila buttered her up for the whole escape ordeal, but I don’t think she ever told Parker that Leader might take his anger out on her. I wish she hadn’t seen Lila like that. We’re practically her parents.” He scoffed, “Leader thought when Parker came that giving her to Lila would be a good idea, to replace what he stole from her.”

“What’s that?” Logan asked.

Declan sighed, “Two and a half years ago, my sister was pregnant. They got rid of it and locked her in solitary for four months. They let her out when Parker arrived, but Garrett never came back. She concocted our escape plan based on how highly Parker spoke of you, Professor Charles Xavier. We’ve put our trust in you, and I thank you for your hospitality so far, but I warn you, if you intend to enslave us in any way, we will be gone faster than you can imagine.”

“We have no such intentions.” Charles assured the boy. “I believe Ororo has spoken to your mother, she’ll be here as soon as she can.”

Declan sucked in a ragged breath, “Our mother?” Hope bloomed on his face, “I thought we’d never see her again.”

Charles gave Declan a peculiar look, “Mr. Hawthorne, I am unable to sense your thoughts. Do you have any idea as to why that is so?”

Declan grinned cockily, “Of course I do. My sister’s a telepath, I learned a long time ago how to keep her out of my head. We annoy one another when she does, so keeping my mind closed is second nature now, almost like a second mutation. It’s the result of a nosy twin though, not my genetics.” He looked over at Hank, “Can we go take that tube out now, she’s nearly awake.”

Logan looked to Charles when they left, “You should get some sleep, Wheels. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.” Charles nodded, wheeling himself back to his rooms at the older mutant’s suggestion.

As they walked, Hank asked Declan, “How can you tell she’s waking up?”

Declan smirked, “I know my sister. She doesn’t stay down for long. Plus, the pain she was inflicting on me is receding. When she’s conscious, she keeps those things to herself. She’s very private and uptight almost when she’s awake. We’ve shared dreams our whole lives. Even in the four months we were separated, I knew every time she fell asleep and woke up. That kept me going, knowing she was sleeping. My own telepathic powers are limited to her. More a twin thing than mutant. Lila doesn’t like exploring it, but I do. For someone who knows everyone elses...” He trailed off, vanishing with a rush of air.

Hank ran into the medical bay, coming up on Declan holding Lila’s head still,   
The girl’s brown eyes were looking wildly all over the room, and she was struggling against her brother as much as her injured body would allow, trying to reach for the tube in her throat. Hank entered her line of sight, and made hand motions to sooth her, “Lila, I’m Doctor Hank McCoy. Hold still, and I’ll take that tube out in just a minute.”

She continued to struggle, forcing Declan to yell, “Lila, you’re okay! Stop!” She stilled at the tone of hie voice, and he winced, “Sorry, Lila, I didn’t mean to yell, but you’re safe. We’re at the school Parker talked about, the one run by Professor Charles Xavier.”

She relaxed, and Declan let her face go, returning to gently holding her hand in his while Hank listened to her lungs, “Your lungs sound like they’ve returned to normal.” He commented, and began removing the tape from around the tube. “Cough.” He instructed her before he began to take the tube out, and in seconds, Lila was free of the thing.

Declan laughed at the look on her face, “What can I say, Lila? Leader’s a dick. The way he strung you up, you couldn’t breath. Hank took care of you though. I even got to help.”

She seemed to realize that speaking wouldn’t feel good for a little while, but she smiled at her brother anyway. She looked over at Hank, and he heard a soft voice in his head, “Thank you.”

Hank nodded, “That’s what I do. Would you like some ice?”

Lila nodded slowly, gesturing to her torso. Declan winced, “Yeah, Leader tore you up pretty good. There’s a few slices to your back, but you’re so damn skinny that you aren’t laying directly on them.” She narrowed her eyes, and Declan laughed, looking Hank’s direction, “She just told me to watch my language.”

Hank resisted the instinct to smile back, and put on a cool face, “You should take her advice. Ororo has been known to attack students with soap for cursing. In good fun, of course, but she actually managed to catch Scott once.” Hank sighed wistfully, “That was an interesting afternoon.”

A handsome man in his late thirties walked in, “Hey, Hank! Scott said there were more kiddos down here. What’s up?”

Hank rolled his eyes, “Declan, Lila, this is Alex, Scott Summers father.”

Alex grinned, “Much better looking of course, he gets the looks he’s got from me.”

Lila caught him off guard when she spoke to him inside his mind, “Pleasure to meet you, Alex.”

He looked at her, lip curled in playful disgust, “Another telepath? Hope Charlie doesn’t get too excited and stop talking to the rest of us.”

“Charlie?” Declan chortled, and Lila smiled with him.

“What can I say, I’m almost as old as he is, so I get some old person perks.” Alex attested.

Hank sighed, “So why are you here, Havok?”

“Like I said, Scott called. He was all stirred up about it. I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d stop by.” Alex explained, peering at the absolutely torn up girl. The blanket had fallen into her lap, revealing that her entire torso was bandaged neatly.

“Punishment.” She whispered, coughing a little, taking a cup of ice from Hank gratefully.

“Lyles?” Came a hushed voice, and Lila’s head jerked to the right, while Declan took on a pissed demeanor.

“Garrett?” She asked softly.

There was a relieved laugh from behind the curtain, “Thank God. I thought he’d killed you for sure.”

Lila smiled, “Can’t get rid of me that easily. You on the other hand, I thought you were dead.” She shot a pointed look to her twin and he grudgingly pulled the curtain aside.

Garrett looked as bad as she felt, and he winced when he tried to smile back at her, “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Lila saw him fighting to keep his eyes open, “Sleep, Gare. We can talk later.” His eyes shut two seconds later and Hank stared at the telepath. Something about what she had just said seemed familiar.

“So tell me about your parents.” Hank asked, shooting Havok a look.

Declan and Lila looked at each other, figuring out how to answer. Declan grinned, “I got this, Lila, you rest and let me talk.” She giggled, and he glared at her, “That was a nasty comment, Delilah Hawthorne.” Lila looked too pleased with herself, and playfully knocked her chin to the side, “Imp.” He looked back to Hank and Alex, “Our mother worked as a geneticist. Well, she tried. Our Gran was better, but she taught Mum what she could. They’d spend days looking at the same thing under a microscope. We don’t know our father, Mum doesn’t either, but she never loved us any less. She thinks he was American, but that’s only because she was living here when she got pregnant with us. I was her trouble kid, so I got more of her stern side than Lila did, but what eight year old boy enjoys school?” He narrowed his eyes at the speculative look on Hank’s face, “Weirdo.”

“Dec.” Lila said warningly.

He held up his hands, “Sorry, but that’s weird, no one should like school.”

“I liked school.” Lila pointed out hoarsely.

Declan scoffed, “That’s only because you could read all the answers out of our teacher’s mind and were her favorite.”

Lila grinned, clearing her throat, “You’re just jealous I didn’t share.”

“Yeah!” Declan said, remembering all the times they’d been pulled apart by their mother wrestling. “Mum used to wrestle with us. Her job in America, she was fit, and she kept up with it after we were born. She was fierce, that woman.” Declan took his sister’s hand in his own again, “They called her, Lila. Mum will be here soon.”

Lila smiled, “I bet the first thing she asks is, ‘Who destroyed the statue?’. Remember?”

“I didn’t mean to!” Declan barked defensively.

Hank and Alex shared another look. “You broke a statue?”

Declan nodded, “The morning we were kidnapped, I was messing around in the house, and when I teleported off this statue, I brought it’s head with me. Lila laughed her ass off. I was worried all day about getting in trouble.” The smile fell off his face, “That’s why I wasn’t paying attention right before they grabbed us.”

“Not your fault.” Lila said firmly, popping another ice chip into her mouth, relishing in the relief it brought her irritated throat. “Can you tell us more about this school? Parker told us what she could, but an eight year old can’t be the most reliable relayer of information.”

Hank nodded, it was a good question, “Charles Xavier founded it almost twenty years ago as a safe haven for young mutants, some, like myself, stick out in the normal world, and it’s necessary to have a place where mutations can be nurtured, not condemned.” Upon receiving blank looks from the twins, Hank realized that in all the commotion, he hadn’t turned off his image inducer. “Sorry about that.” He muttered, pressing the button to turn the device off. To their credit, the twins looked more amazed than frightened.

“We’ve never seen anyone like you before.” Declan explained, “That’s what they looked for in their victims. We had to look normal. We had to be attractive. They wanted to use us as...”

“Sleeper agents.” Lila filled in, reaching her hand out to touch the fur on Hank’s arm. She smiled, “You’re soft.”

Alex chuckled, “I’m sure he conditions regularly. Hank sews too. Regular diva.”

Lila started to laugh, but the movement hurt and left her gasping. Hank cursed silently, feeling along the side she was tending to, realizing that she’d possibly broken a rib, “Sorry, I should have warned you not to try to move too much.”

She nodded solemnly, catching her brother’s eyes, “Dec, be honest. How bad is it?”

Declan winced, and Hank and Alex waited hesitantly to hear his answer. “You’ve had worse.” Declan finally said.

“Really?” Lila said, scrunching her eyebrows together.

Declan nodded, putting on a nice bravado, “Yeah, when we were on that mission and that guy nearly killed you with his hunting knife. That was worse, and you healed up just fine.”

“I was limping for three months.” Lila said, looking dismayed. “Will you tell me the truth?” She asked, looking at Hank.

“Why don’t you just read my mind?” He asked her.

Lila winced again when she tried to shift, “I don’t like doing that. When we were little, the only mind I read was Declan’s. People’s thoughts are private. I hated every day they forced me to invade that privacy. I only kept my mind open in the facility to keep myself aware of the next time someone tried to finagle me into killing someone.”

“Parker mentioned the killing.” Hank said softly.

Lila and Declan both looked at their hands, and Lila sighed, “I tried to keep her from that, but six months ago, they threatened to take her away if I didn’t allow them to take her on missions. She’s so sweet looking, you see. People don’t expect anything from her until a wild animal’s torn their throats out.” She closed her eyes and pressed her lips into a fine line, “I’m just so glad they hadn’t made her learn to kill by hand. It would destroy her.”

The door opened, and the little mutant ran into the room, “Momma!”

Lila smiled, holding a hand slightly out to the girl, “Parker, you’re alright, thank goodness.”

Parker hopped up onto the bed next to Lila, with help from Hank, and settled as close to Lila as she could without hurting her, glaring at Declan, “You said you’d get me when she woke up.”

Declan stuttered several times, but Lila stroked a hand over Parker’s cheek, “Come now, Parker, you know how Declan gets when he’s worried. He forgets what he’s said.” She glanced up at the clock on the wall, “It’s far past your bedtime.”

Parker pouted, “Momma, I’m not sleepy.”

“That’s the adrenaline, love. Trust me, a nice warm bed, and you’ll be out like a little light.” Lila assured her, gesturing to her brother to pick the girl up. “Is there a place she could sleep? Little thing’s been up for over a day.”

“I’m not sleepy.” Parker affirmed, but her eyes were bobbing shut as she said the words.

Hank stood, “We should all get to bed. Come on, Parker, I’ll find a room for you.”

Parker looked hesitantly at Lila, and the older girl took a chain off of her neck with Declan’s help, holding it out to the girl, “Here, Parker. You can give it back to me in the morning.” Hank caught a good look at the pendant on the chain, it was heart-shaped and gold, with an intricate pattern shaped onto it with fine strands of silver. Parker’s face lit up at the sight of it, and when she took it into her hands, she opened it, revealing the insides to contain a tiny music box. “It was Gran’s, and then is was Mum’s. I’d wear it during the day and give it back to her when I got home.” Lila explained, “The song helps Parker sleep when I’m not there.” She nudged the girl off the cot with a gentle hand, “Go on now, love. You’ve had a long day.”

Hank and Alex left them, dimming the lights and guiding Parker to a spare room. When they were nearly there, Parker let the tiny music box start playing, and it caused Alex to stop in his tracks, “I’ve heard that song before.”

Hank listened thoughtfully, his eyes widening, “Moira.”

Alex nodded, “I’d almost forgotten about it, that little song she’d hum when she was cleaning.”

Hank busied himself with putting Parker into a room, not wanting to think about the woman who Charles had sent away all those years ago. He went to check on Lila and Declan again, as well as the mysterious Garrett, and found them to all be resting easy, Declan having perched himself along the padded bench next to his sister. Hank covered him with a spare blanket. He ran into Logan upstairs, the older mutant giving him a strange look, “There’s something off about those kids.”

Hank sighed, “They were kidnapped from their parents when they were children, and then taught to kill. They are going to be strange. I’m finding Lila to be very well adjusted for such circumstances, but she’s a telepath, she’s probably very used to showing people what they want to see. Parker is slightly developmentally delayed, and Declan might have mood adjustment issues. I haven’t even started with Garrett yet, but I’m sure he’s going to be a barrel of fun too. It’s going to be a while before any of them can be considered normal.”

“I couldn’t smell their ‘Leader’.” Logan admitted, “I saw him scurry off after getting that last swipe at the girl in, but I lost him. I couldn’t smell him at all. He seemed familiar.”

“Maybe someone from before?” Hank offered.

Logan nodded, the look on his face wary, “Maybe.”


	5. Chapter 5

At about two in the morning, all was silent in the X-mansion, and it was at least another five hours before anyone began stirring. Oddly enough, when Logan went up to the kitchen, Lila was sitting in one of the chairs. She jerked when she heard him, being interrupted at inspecting one of her wounds. “Sorry.” Logan muttered, wondering how she’d gotten up the stairs from the medical bay by herself.

Lila smoothed the bandage back down, “It’s fine. I just didn’t hear you coming.” She gestured to the silver collar around her neck, “I’m not used to this many people, so I’m shut off for now. I started to get a headache when the students started waking up. Luckily, whoever took off Declan’s collar didn’t totally rip it to shreds.”

Logan put a bagel in front of the girl, “Eat. Flash is right, you’re too skinny.”

Lila laughed softly, “I can’t eat when I’m nervous.” Logan gave her a look, and she smiled at him, “I’ll eat now though. I didn’t catch your name last night, but then again, you weren’t around me when I was awake, were you?”

“Logan.” He growled, getting out his own breakfast.

“I guess you already know I’m Lila.” She offered, taking a bite of the bagel and actually moaning at the taste, “Sweet heavens, this is wonderful.”

Logan cocked an eyebrow at her, but said nothing, eating his own breakfast, leaning against the counter. He watched Lila though as she ate, acting like every bite was the best thing ever. Her torso was bandaged into a sort of corset, her legs clad in her still bloodstained black pants, and her auburn hair fell down well past her shoulders, almost to her waist. She was pretty, and he wasn’t surprised when the boy he’d found beaten to a bloody pulp in that locked room joined them in the kitchen.

Lila grinned, “Declan should have known those cuffs wouldn’t hold you.”

Garrett laughed, nodding to Logan in acknowledgement. “Yeah, well he was more worried about you. I don’t blame him. You look awful.”

Logan could have beat the kid again. For a girl who’d almost suffocated to death and had been beaten with a whip, she looked pretty damn good. Lila didn’t seem to be angry about his words though, and gestured to the seat next to her. “You look like shit yourself.”

Garrett laughed again and sat next to her, looking thoughtful, “Lila, how’d you get up here?”

“Dec brought me.” Lila answered easily, shifting to be more comfortable again.

Garrett took her hand in his, and she gasped. Logan had his claws halfway out to protect the injured girl when Garrett buckled over, sagging against the table, “Good God, Lila. How can you even move?”

Lila stretched her arms nimbly, in a range of motion Logan was pretty sure she shouldn’t have been able to manage. She settled back down into the chair and ran a hand through Garrett’s short hair as he kept his head on the table, “I have a high pain tolerance, remember?” She frowned, “You didn’t have to do that. You have your own injuries to deal with.”

“I’m counting it towards my punishment for believing the shit Leader told me. I know you better than that. I deserve a lot worse, trust me.” Garrett told her, straightening slightly, letting Logan get a look at the young male’s torso, and the blood already seeping through his shirt. Garrett caught his look, “My secondary mutation. I can take others’ injuries into myself. I like to think of it as penance. Lila’s right as rain now.” He winced, touching the bruise on her cheek, “Well almost. I can’t take bruises or illness, only severe injury. Better me healing than you being in more pain.”

“I’d have been fine in a few weeks.” Lila insisted.

“You’d have scarred, and I couldn’t live with that. Knowing that you got hurt because I was too much of a jackass to save you in time.” Garrett explained.

Lila scoffed, “You got the crap beat out of you trying to stop him. I don’t blame you.”

“Two against one, Lila. He’s a jerk.” Declan said, striding into the kitchen with Parker on his hip, half asleep. Lila glared at him, “Don’t look at me like that. She had Fluffy come find me. He kept biting at me till I teleported to her.” He kissed the side of the little girl’s head, “Not nice, Little Dove.”

Parker laughed, snuggling into him. She acted very young for a ten year old, but according to Hank, she’d been very stern and precise getting to him, like any good little soldier. She was an orphan now, and whether she realized it or not, that would change her.

Lila held out her hand expectantly, “Good morning, Parker.”

Parker looked at her surrogate mother impishly and held a locket out to her, “Good morning.”

Lila laughed, taking the locket, slipping it around her neck and holding her hands out to Parker, “Come here, love.” The girl looked hesitant, but Lila nodded, “I’m alright, Parker. Garrett took care of me.”

Parker lunged from one twin to the other with a gleeful squeal. “Momma!”

Logan watched the muscles in her arms tense at the weight, and noted how strong she seemed, while not having the bulk such muscles usually entailed. Lila closed her eyes and pressed her lips to the girl’s forehead, “We’re free now, Parker. Thanks to you. You can go home now.”

Parker fixed her hazel eyes on the locket around Lila’s throat, “I don’t want to go home. I want to stay with you and Declan.”

Lila sighed, adjusting the gangly child on her hip, “You have to go home to your Mommy and Daddy, Parker. I’m certain they’ve missed you bunches.”

“She can’t.” Logan said, drawing attention to himself. He heard the wheels of Charles’ chair on the wood flooring.

Charles appeared in the doorway, “Now is not the time for that, Logan.” He looked over the mutant children he’d yet to meet, “Garrett, that’s a miraculous gift you have.”

Garrett snarled, and he was blocked out of his mind, “Stay out of my head, old man.”

The auburn haired girl glared at Garrett, who had struggled to his feet to stand next to her, “Don’t be rude.”

Charles turned his attentions to the young woman. She wasn’t injured anymore, the only signs of her brush with death the bruise on her cheek and the bloodstains on the gauze covering her torso. As usual, seeing a person with his own eyes was different than seeing them through the eyes of others. She was average height for a woman, five and a half feet he gathered, but the way she held herself made her seem much taller. Even with the younger mutant girl on her hips, she was imposing. He noted the silver collar perched back on her throat, “Why the collar, Delilah?”

She flushed, “I’ve never been around this many new people. The walls in the facility were lined in lead. It blocks my ability. The collar is just for a few days, so I can adjust to being around so many people.”

“I think she’s overreacting.” Declan said, eating the rest of his sister’s food.

“She’s right to be cautious, Declan. You’ve been secluded, a school of this size might have been overwhelming.” Charles held a hand out to her, “You are not alone anymore, Delilah. I can help you.” She looked warily at him, not releasing her grip on the ten year old. “Your telepathy is not your only mutation, you know? You have a mutated MCL1 gene...”

“Auburn hair.” Lila finished, placing Parker on her feet and approaching Charles, “Mum heard it somewhere, told me. I don’t forget anything.”

“An edict memory, how rare.” Charles commented, taking her hand in his own, “Logan, would you please remove Miss Hawthorne’s collar?”

Logan stood behind the girl, gripping the silver collar on either side, but just before he snapped it Lila whispered, “You won’t let me fall, will you?”

Charles smiled, squeezing her hand, “No, my dear. You’re safe here.”

She nodded, “Okay.” With that, Logan snapped the collar, and all the thoughts of the awakening students filled Lila’s brain. For a second, she lost herself, becoming one with the massive amounts of thoughts, the first group she’d been around with her powers fully developed.

“Focus on my voice, Delilah. Remember who you are.” Charles encouraged, and Lila gasped when she snapped psychically back into her own mind.

She blinked at him a few times, chocolate brown eyes on blue. In unison, they realized something, and Lila pushed herself away from him mentally and physically, spinning around just in time to grab Garrett’s hand as he fainted. “Garrett!” She cried, managing to control his fall enough that he didn’t hit his head on the table. The wounds that on her had sealed shut had opened up on him, and blood ran down his chest, wetting the black shirt he wore. “Declan!” Lila demanded, and her twin put a hand on both of them, vanishing.

“They’re back with Hank.” Charles said, when Logan looked ready to tear something up.

It took Hank an hour to stabilize Garrett, telling Lila that the combination of her injuries and his own had put him in far worse shape than either of them had been before. “Stupid idiot.” Lila muttered, unwinding her now defunct bandages. She’d almost taken them all the way off before she registered Hank’s panicked thoughts. Her eyes jerked to him, and she covered her chest, “Sorry. Personal boundaries at the facility have made me forget my manners. I’m sorry. I’m not used to having privacy. Won’t happen again.”

Declan rolled his eyes, “Gee, Lila, you just keep making more friends.”

She shot him a dirty look and Hank was relieved when Kitty phased through the ceiling. Kitty took one look at Lila, standing half naked and said, “Girl, we have to take you shopping.”

Hank laughed at the horrified look on Lila’s face, but she didn’t resist being dragged away by Kitty, who was asking her question after question. Declan chuckled as well, “I almost feel sorry for my sister. She’s never really left the facility.”

“Never?” Hank echoed, surprised.

Declan shrugged, “They were always afraid of her, so they kept her within the facility boundaries most of the time. Lila and I are each other’s weakness. She’s been out in the forest, but she hasn’t been in a city or anything since we were kidnapped. I at least had assignments where I could be out on my own for a few days. Of course they’d start beating her if I was even a minute late returning. They claimed that after five minutes, they’d shoot her in the head. I never tested their resolve. The most they got in was a punch before I laid whoever did it out.” Hank checked aggression in his mental checklist at the look on Declan’s face. Declan sighed, “The only time Lila’s ever been out of the facility was to kill people. She’s never gotten the chance to interact with anyone from the outside world but her targets. Lila adapts well though, she’ll be fine.” Declan wandered away, leaving Hank with the unconscious young mutant.

Lila was highly amused by Kitty, who was running around her room trying to find something for her to wear. She ended up handing Lila a pair of jeans and a blue v-neck t-shirt. When Kitty returned to collect her, she looked Lila over appraisingly, “Blue is definitely your color.”

“Thank you!” Lila said with a laugh, feeling very odd in the stiff denim fabric.

Kitty shrugged, “Jean’s probably more your size, but she’s still asleep. Professor X said we can go when she gets up, so I wanted you to be ready.” Jean had hardly exited her room when Kitty grabbed her wrist. “Let’s go, Jean! Lila needs us to go shopping!”

Jean blinked a few times and Lila laughed, “Good morning, Jean.” Lila said telepathically.

Jean smiled, “Hank said you were a telepath too. It’ll be nice to have someone else around like me.”

“Let’s go!” Kitty whined, grabbing Lila’s wrist too and giving them both a tug.

They had no choice but to follow the incessant younger girl to the garage. Jean chose to take the red and white sports car Scott usually drove, forcing Kitty to sit in the back seat on the drive to the mall. They were halfway through the mall when a young man stopped them, “Hey, girls, what are you up to?”

Kitty and Jean sneered, and Kitty jerked back from him, “Back off, Lance.”

He shrugged, “Just saying hi, Kitty.” He looked Lila over, “Haven’t seen you before, what’s your name, sweet thing?”

Lila joined the other two girls in sneering, “It’s Lila, but that’s not any of your business.” She started walking away, following Jean and Kitty’s lead, when he grabbed her arm.

“Hey, don’t walk away from me. There’s another way, you know. You don’t have to stay with those X-freaks.” Lance said, squeezing her arm tightly.

Kitty and Jean started forward, but Lila had an arm wrapped around Lance’s throat in a second, speaking to him telepathically, “Touch me again, and I’ll kill you.” She squeezed his throat once more before letting him go. Kitty and Jean stared at her as she walked towards them, “Sorry. I don’t like being grabbed. Overreaction. Guy seems like a jerk anyway.” She glanced at Kitty, “He seems to like you though.”

Kitty rolled her eyes, “Tell me about it. He’s cute and all, but he’s a total bad-boy.”

Lila laughed, “Garrett’s the same way most of the time. I think it took me two years to get him to laugh, and he was already half in love with me at that point.”

“So you two are an item?” Jean asked.

Lila shrugged, “I’d like to say yes, but we’ve been apart for over two years. I know now that he doesn’t hate me, but I’m not sure were we stand. He healed me this morning, so that’s a good sign. He hates that part of his mutation, so he hardly ever uses it. I’m kind of honored actually.”

Kitty giggled, “That’s so sweet!”

“Yeah, I guess it is.” Lila said, her eyes catching on a leather jacket in one of the windows. “Garrett would love that.”

Jean bumped her with a hip, “Let’s go get it then!”

They went in side and Lila stammered at the price tag, “I couldn’t possibly ask for this much.”

Jean shrugged, leaning against a display of men’s shirts, “The Professor won’t mind, promise. Besides, you should probably get stuff for him and your brother.”

With a lot of coaxing from the other two girls, Lila caved to her desire, buying Garrett the jacket, jeans for both of them, and a slew of solid t-shirts. Kitty had disapproved of her solid color selections, but Lila had smirked, “Kitty, we’ve worn black, white and grey most of our lives. I’ll be lucky if I can even get them to touch the colored shirts, much less anything with a pattern. Those two are massive creatures of habit.”

The three of them had a bit more fun picking out clothes for Parker though, squabbling about what colors would suit the little girl best. In the end, she ended up with more clothes than Lila had seen in ten years.

They’d piled back into Scott’s car with their haul when Lila heard something, “Jean, what’s just North of here?”

“The airport.” Jean answered. “Why?”

“Can we drive by?” Lila asked.

Jean nodded, “Sure, we can do that.”

Lila was fidgeting in her seat when they got outside the airport, and Jean and Kitty weren’t prepared for when she lunged out of the passenger seat and ran towards the landing strip where a private plane had just landed, “Granna!”

There was an older woman standing at the base of the stairs. The woman’s brown eyes widened in shock, “Lila?”

Lila caught the woman at her run, causing them both to grunt. “Granna, I thought I’d never see you again.”

Kitty and Jean watched tears fill the woman’s eyes, “I did too, Lila.” She wiped her eyes and pulled Lila back, “Look at ye.” She smiled, her chin quivering, “Ye look so much like yer mother did at yer age.” She touched the side of Lila’s face, “Ye heard my thoughts, didn’t ye? That’s how ye knew I was here.”

“You know?” Lila gasped.

Lila’s grandmother nodded, “Of course, Delilah. Your mother and I might not have agreed on everything, but we both knew you and your brother were special. I’m a geneticist, and I’ve seen your DNA under a microscope. You and your brother have very odd genetics. That never changed how we felt about you two though. We speculated on your talents, and we figured ye’d tell us when ye were ready.” She swallowed back tears, “We didn’t know ye wouldn’t have the time te.”

Cold dread filled Lila, she stepped away from her grandmother, tears in her eyes, “Granna, where’s Mum?”

Her grandmother blinked at her several times, and when Lila’s chest started heaving in sobs, she jerked the girl to her, “Och, Lila, sweetheart. Ah didn’t mean to frighten ye. She’s alright, she’s in New York City. I got the call yesterday and wanted to get here first.” She placed a kiss on her granddaughter’s temple, “Ah didn’t want ‘er to be here alone if, when ‘at woman said they’d foond you, she meant she’d foond yer bodies.”

Lila’s mouth formed an ‘O’. “So Mum is coming?”

“Aye, Ah called ‘er ten minutes ago wi’ th’ information. She’s on ‘er way.” Lila’s grandmother assured her.

“Let’s go then!” Lila said, clasping her grandmother’s wrinkled hand and looking at Kitty and Jean. “Can she ride with us?”

Jean nodded, still too confused by the situation to say anything. Lila spent the entire drive back curled up against her grandmother like a little girl, the old woman smiling lovingly and running her free hand continuously over Lila’s auburn hair, her thoughts focused on memorizing every inch of her granddaughter’s face. Jean had to keep out of her thoughts for the most part to not burst into tears.

When they pulled into the driveway, it took about three minutes for the team to be gathered in the garage. Ororo and Professor X took up the rear. Professor X smiled at the older woman, who was now peppering kisses over Declan’s face. “Welcome to the X-mansion.”

She gave the boy a tight squeeze before striding to the Professor, holding out a hand, “Thank you, Professor Xavier, for finding my grandchildren. The name’s Moira Grace Kinross, just Grace to ye, I owe ye a great deal.” His eyes widened infinitesimally at her name.

“You’ve contacted us before. Rahne Sinclair. You’re her guardian. She’s doing quite well here.” Professor X commented.

Grace smiled, “She’s a good lass. I could kill ‘er father for what he did tae ‘er.”

Declan chuckled, “There you go, Lila. There’s where you got the evil from, Granna!”

Grace scowled at her grandson, “Boy, don’t think ah’ve forgotten abit ‘at statue ye beheaded. Your Mum hasn’t either.”

“Told ya.” Lila smirked, garnering a petulant glare from her brother. Lila gasped, “I can hear Mum.”

“Where?” Declan asked.

“Upstairs lobby.” Lila answered, and Charles laughed softly when the twins grabbed each other, vanishing.

Grace didn’t seem surprised. “Guess we should get up there before they scare their poor mother tae death. Moira will be beside herself.”

Charles stayed frozen, only moving when Wolverine looked back at him, “You coming, Chuck?” He nodded, and the dread that had been gnawing at him since he’d first seen Declan Hawthorne grew stronger the closer they got to the lobby. The mind in the lobby was almost as familiar to him as his own, and far more dear to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment please!


	6. Chapter 6

Moira MacTaggert was crying hysterically, clutching at the two teenagers that were her children. Jean seemed oblivious to her mentors’ stony reactions, and was smiling broadly, “Ms. Hawthorne, here’s Professor Xavier, our headmaster.”

Moira looked at him and smiled through her tears, reminding him of how she’d looked the day he’d been injured on that island. “Thank you, for bringing them back to me.”

“Moira.” Hank began, a hand half reached to her before he faltered, seeing the absolute lack of recognition on her face. He growled low in his chest, turning to glare at him. Charles was overwhelmed by projected emotions.

Alex and Hank were angry. So, very, very angry at him. Alex walked up beside him and flashed a charming smile Moira’s direction, “We’ll be back shortly, just have to have a quick chat with the Professor here.”

Alex forcefully grabbed Charles’ wheelchair and steered him into the study down the hall, Hank following close behind. “She doesn’t remember us, does she? Is that why she left and never came back?” Alex demanded when the door closed.

Logan entered a second later, “What’s going on, here?”

Hank was barely holding it together, “That woman in there, Moira Hawthorne, we knew her years ago when she was a CIA agent. She was the agent who got us together at first. After our show down with Shaw, she came back and helped Charles recover from his injuries, and one day, nineteen years ago, she left and never came back.”

Logan inhaled deeply, “I guess that’s why Flash smells just like you. Charles, they’re eighteen.”

Charles couldn’t move, he couldn’t breath. That was why looking into Declan’s face had been so startling, and the tenor of Lila’s mind so familiar. It was also why her telepathic abilities were so strong. They were his. “I didn’t...”

Hank snarled, cutting him off, “You erased her memories. How could you do that?”

“She wouldn’t have been safe here.” Charles said quietly.

The door opened, and Lila’s face came into view, looking oddly calm, “Pardon my interruption, but my Mum would like to speak with you.”

Charles knew by the look on her face that she was aware of every word that had been spoken inside the room, and it killed him that his first glance at his daughter’s face was filled with contempt. She looked just like Moira, and how he hadn’t seen it before was a conundrum.

“Please, Hank, Alex, Logan why don’t you let me have a moment with Ms. Hawthorne.” Charles said stiffly.

Lila lashed out, “Actually, it’s Doctor MacTaggert, Professor.” She hissed his title mockingly and fled the doorway, the three men following her, both Hank and Alex shooting dark thoughts and glares back at him.

Moira sat down in the chair across from him, smiling gently at Hank and Alex as they grudgingly left. Once they were alone, she just stared at him, a sad smile on her face. He studied her intently. She looked the same. Even though almost twenty years had passed since he had last laid eyes on her, she hardly looked a day over thirty-five. Her hair was still the same deep auburn, just a few sparsely placed gray hairs denoting her true age, and her brown eyes were framed by just a few small lines. Time had been very good to her. Although she was a year older than he was, anyone looking at them would have thought he was at least ten years older than her.

She spoke first, and her words stunned him more than her presence did, “You lost your hair.”

“You remember.” He whispered.

Moira nodded, “Seeing the three of you together, my boys, Charles, Hank, and Alex, triggered something. Everything clicked back into place. Where’s Sean?”

“Living in Boston and married to a lovely young woman named Maeve. They have a two year old daughter, Theresa.” Charles answered numbly.

Moira smiled fondly, “Good. There’s a boy out there who looks just like Alex. His son?”

Charles nodded, “That would be Scott. Alex’s younger son, Alex Jr., is in Hawaii with their mother.”

Moira laughed, “Alex Jr. poor kid. That sounds just like Alex though.” She visibly withdrew into herself again, “Is it strange to miss people I didn’t remember knowing five minutes ago?” She said with a sigh.

“I’m sorry, Moira. You have every right to hate me.” Charles blurted.

She stood quickly, and started pacing the rug in front of him. For several minutes, she didn’t say anything, and out of guilt, he didn’t pry into her thoughts. Finally, she stopped, stepping closer to him, “I don’t hate you. I’m angry with you, for what you did to me, but I understand your reasoning. Actually, I feel bad for you. When you sent me away, neither of us knew I was pregnant. I got eight, wonderful years with them, Charles, and you...they’re even more strangers to you than they are to me. You weren’t there for their first words, their first steps, their first day of school.” Her chin trembled, “You weren’t there the first time Lila read my mother’s mind, or when Declan flashed across the room to get a toy he wanted and I had to convince myself I was seeing things. I may have been parted from them for ten years, but I can already tell that, in time, I’ll know them again. We have stories to reminisce upon, birthday parties, pets, mutant mishaps they thought I didn’t notice. You have nothing to build a relationship on with them apart from the fact that half of their DNA is yours. I pity you for that because they are two of the most fascinating beings on the planet and I love the both of them with all my heart. I would die for them.” She took his hand, squeezing gently, “I loved you that way once.”

Just as quickly as her touch had come, it was gone, and she left him, returning to the hall where their son readily embraced her. Now when Moira looked at Declan, she saw Charles as he’d been when they’d first met, young, handsome, hyper-intelligent, cocky, and ready to take on the world.

“Mum, we’d like you to meet someone.” He said, interrupting her train of thought. He took her hand and led her to a living area where Lila was sitting on a sofa with an African American girl in her lap, speaking softly to the girl. Lila smiled when she saw them enter, “Mum, this is Parker. She was taken like we were, and we’ve sort of taken her in.” In her mind, Moira heard Lila’s voice continue, “She’s an orphan now. I haven’t had the heart to tell her yet.”

She looked at the child and felt a deep sorrow that something that innocent had been left alone in the world. “Hello, Parker. I’m Moira, Lila’s Mum.”

Parker’s eyes jerked to Lila’s face, “She says my name like you do!”

Lila laughed, “Yeah, Parker, she does.”

Declan brushed past Moira to jerk the girl out of Lila’s lap, inciting a screech from them both. “Come here, Little Dove! Let’s explore.” He cried vanishing with the child in his arms, causing the dog at Lila’s feet to jump up, barking as he tore out of the room.

Lila sighed, throwing her hands up helplessly. Moira laughed, sitting next to the daughter she’d thought she’d lost a long time ago, “You both seem fond of little Parker.”

Lila nodded, “We’ve pretty much been her parents for the last two years. You can tell who the fun one is.”

They chuckled together, and Moira brushed a strand of Lila’s hair out of her face, “You want to stay with her, don’t you?”

“Yeah, at least until she’s a little older.” Lila admitted, “But I want to be with you and Granna too. I’ve missed you both so much.”

Moira grinned at her daughter, “We can always stay here, Lila. We’re Kinross’, money is not an issue. Now I’m not sure your Granna would give up living in the manor, but I know she’d visit us frequently wherever we are.” She winced, “But Lila, you’re grown. Do you even want to live with me?”

“Yes!” Lila shouted, throwing her arms around Moira’s neck, “We missed ten years with you. At least for a little while, I want to feel like a kid again. I don’t want to know the things I know, to know what I’ve done, everything Declan’s done. I just want to be Delilah Grace MacTaggert. I want to make friends I can speak my mind to, I want to go shopping again, because, even though it was absolutely terrifying, that was the most fun I’ve had in years! Most of all, I want to get to know you again.”

Moira kissed the side of Lila’s head, “You can do all of that, Lila. But you have to do something else for me.”

Lila stilled. Those words had rarely meant anything good to her, “What?”

Moira squeezed her daughter tightly, “Don’t be too angry at your father. He didn’t know he was abandoning you, he just thought he was keeping me safe.” She pulled back so she could look into her daughter’s face, “I’m human. I’m not as durable as you mutants are. I don’t have any special power to protect myself with. He only did what he thought was right.”

Lila pouted slightly, “We had Joe for a father for two years, and they were terrible. We didn’t need a father then and we don’t need one now.”

Moira arched an eyebrow, Lila was just as stubborn as she’d been in her childhood, “Delilah Grace, don’t give me lip. I realize it’s been ten years, but I am still your mother.”

Lila burst into tears, “I missed you so much!”

Moira started crying too, and when her mother returned from the kitchen, she shook her head, “Just look at ye tae. Weepin’ like little girls. Know I didn’ raise ye like ‘at.”

Declan popped back in, leaning against his grandmother, “They just aren’t as cool as us, Granna.” He kicked the sofa with one foot, “Hey, Garrett’s asking for you. I filled him in on everything.” He grimaced, “He really doesn’t like me, but hey, I try to man-bond.”

Lila rolled her eyes and pulled back from their mother, wiping her eyes, “Dec, you’re hardly quiet enough to get along with Garrett.” She sighed, “I should go.”

“Who’s Garrett?” Moira asked.

“Lila’s man-candy.” Declan blurted.

“Declan!” Lila shrieked, launching herself at her twin, who upon impact, flashed them both across the room in an effort to get rid of her.

Grace chuckled, a hand on her daughter’s shoulder, “Some things ne’er change, eh, Moira? Least now we don’t have to pretend not to notice.”

Moira stared at the wall, blinking rapidly, “Last I remember, eight year old Lila certainly did not have ‘man-candy’.”

Grace grinned slyly, “Lesson one in raising a teenager has begun, albeit five years late. One day, after all the fighting and the screaming, girls and boys actually start liking each other.”

“Well I want to meet this boy.” Moira said, standing.

Lila squeaked as Declan dropped her in front of their mother. “What?”

“I want to meet him.” Moira repeated, helping Lila up.

Declan chuckled, “This should be good.”

Lila sighed, “Okay. I’ll warn you, he’s not the most friendly person.”

“He’s like a porcupine, Mum. You’ll see.” Declan drawled.

“He’s not that bad!” Lila protested, leaving the room before her brother lured her into another brawl.

Garrett was still in the medical bay, an oxygen mask on his face. He worked up a small smile, pulling the mask off. “Hey, Lyles, the dim-wit told me you were back.”

Lila laughed softly, taking the mask from him and putting it back on, “Leave it.” She warned sternly when he reached for it again. “Gare, this is my mother, Moira MacTaggert.”

He saluted her feebly, wearing himself down by the second. “Pleasure.” Moira watched the pair closely. Lila had sat down next to the injured boy and was holding his hand in hers. His thumb ran soothingly across her knuckles, “I’ll be fine, Lyles. Don’t look so worried.”

Pain blossomed on Lila’s face, “I can’t help it. It’s my fault you’re this bad off. Why couldn’t you just let me muscle through it?”

Garrett made a face, “Because even thought you’re a know-it-all and your brother is a little douche bag, I care about you more than anything else in the world. I’ve failed you before. I won’t do it again.” He winced, taking in a sharp breath, “Just don’t expect me to get along with your parasitic twin.”

Lila laughed, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Did you have a good time...shopping?” Garrett asked, failing to disguise his disgust.

“I did.” Lila said, brushing a kiss to the back of his hand and pushing the button on the morphine drip Hank had set up for him . “Get some rest, Gare.”

He growled, “Lyles, I don’t...” The morphine hit him hard and his eyes drifted shut.

Lila stood, kissing a non-injured spot on his forehead before stepping away, "His thoughts were straying places they didn’t need to go. He was about to get himself worked up. I couldn’t let him hurt himself anymore.”

“What was he getting worked up about?” Moira asked, watching how tenderly Lila readjusted the young man’s blankets and pillows. He was far more than Lila’s boy-toy. She was in love with him.

“I...” Lila started before glancing back at Garrett, “He was thinking about how he failed me. He was thinking that if he’d been a better man two years ago, he would have gotten me out, he would have saved...us.” She pinched her eyes closed, not waiting for Moira to ask who ‘us’ was. “Mum, two years ago, I got pregnant.” Moira sucked in a breath. Lila was trembling, a hand on her flat stomach, “They found out and... they killed our baby.”

Moira snatched Lila to her, wishing she was able to shield her daughter from the pain she was feeling. She wished that she had been there to protect her, “I’m so sorry.”

Lila pulled herself together. It had been over two years, she couldn’t start crying every time she thought about the tiny life that had never been given the chance to live. “It’s not your fault, Mum.”

Moira looked miserable, “If I had picked you two up from school instead of making you walk. I-”

Lila cut her off, “No, Mum. Don’t blame yourself. We lived the equivalent of three blocks away with no buildings between the school and home. There shouldn’t have been any danger. Declan and I, we got caught using our abilities, it’s our fault, not yours.”

Declan shook his head, looking angry, “You always say that, Lila, but it wasn’t you that got caught. It was me. They were after me, not you. They weren’t going to take you, but instead of getting us away, I let one of them get their hands on you. You were leverage, Lila, they were going to let you go. They didn’t know you were a mutant until you started attacking the people coming into your room. They figured you had to be a mutant to be able to tell someone was coming in a soundproof room with no windows. You always forget to mention that. I should have been smart and teleported away. They would have left you there, and then we could have gone to Mum and Granna and then to the police. I was stupid, Lila, and I dragged you into that Hell-hole with me.” He vanished when she lunged towards him.

“Declan!” Lila yelled, her heart racing. She stood there, dazed, “He’s never done that before.”

“Usually just finds a corner to sulk in.” Garrett said blearily from his bed.

Lila sighed wearily, “You’re supposed to be asleep.”

He gave her a drugged smile, “Yelling. Not enough morphine. Glad he didn’t hit you. Not sure how I’d get out of this bed to skin his ass.”

Lila rearranged his blankets again, “My Gare, always there to protect me.”

Garrett caught her hand when it passed over his, “Stay.”

She looked pained, “Gare, I’ve got to go find Dec.”

“He can manage. Like a cockroach. Outlive us all.” Garrett mumbled, his eyes nearly closed.

Lila kissed the back of his hand, “You’re right. Declan can take care of himself. He needs some alone time, and I need to give it to him.” She took a deep breath, “I love you, Gare, don’t you dare die on me.”

Her reward was another drugged grin, “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“I know.” Lila whispered, listening to his thoughts as they stuttered and gave way to dreams.

Moira put a hand on her shoulder, “I’m glad you found someone, in all of this.”

Lila smiled at her mother, “He’s a surly ass who can hardly say two nice things to my brother in a year, but I love him.” Her hand found it’s way back to her stomach, “When I told him I thought I was pregnant, he was so mad. At himself, not me, but he stopped mid rant and just looked at me. I hardly saw him move before he was crushing me to him, telling me how much he loved me. He was happy. Of all the things I’d thought of him, I never dreamed he’d want to be a dad, but he did. He wanted that with me. Those were the best two weeks of my life there. But it seems that all good things come to a tragic end in my life.”

Moira kissed her temple, “That’s when you find new things to make good.”

Lila laughed harshly, “God, Mum, I missed you so much. You always knew what to say.”

Moira smiled, still marveling at how much looking at Lila was like looking in a mirror twenty five years in the past. “Your Granna taught me everything I know.”

Lila scrunched her nose, “Where is she?”

Moira shrugged, “Knowing her, ripping your father a new one. I think she’s more angry at him than I am.”

“Everything’s so strange right now.” Lila muttered.

Moira nodded, bringing her daughter tightly under her arms, sitting down on the sofa Declan had slept on the night before. “I know, Lila, I know.” She ran her fingers through Lila’s hair and started humming, the same tune from the locket Lila had rocked herself to sleep at night with.


	7. Love Bites

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ookay, so this pulls tidbits from DoFP, and bumps up the rating! For the record I'm gonna have it that Charles was so out of things that having a 10 year old break Erik out of the Pentagon seemed like a good idea, so Peter's going to be in his very early twenties. Wanda will be 17 or so.
> 
> Getting the newly revised plot running here, so bear with me!

Moira looked up when she heard the door open. Hank and Alex were standing in the doorway. Moira smiled at them, “So you’ve met my daughter?” Lila had fallen asleep after just a few minutes of being hummed to and held in her mother’s arms, and was now resting across Moira’s lap, one of Moira’s hands in her hair and the other linked with her’s tucked under her chin.

Hank nodded, “She was pretty banged up, so they brought her to me.” He looked at the sleeping girl’s face, “She looks just like you.”

Moira laughed, looking at her daughter’s face for the thousandth time since their reunion, “Yes, she does, doesn’t she? Declan favors Charles. Especially around the eyes. Thank you for taking care of them.”

“It’s what I do.” Hank said easily, checking Garrett’s monitors and bandages, “They were more than banged up, Moira,” he started softly. “All of them showed signs of years of torture. Seems the facility didn’t want them to stand out in public, however, so none of their scars can be seen in a tank top and shorts.” He held up Garrett’s left arm where a swirling tattoo wrapped around his muscled bicep, covering almost all of the skin, just enough exposed to show the pattern, “There’s scars under this that feel pretty nasty. I think it was an accident, and they used a tattoo to cover it up.”

Moira looked over the young man. He was handsome, short cropped brown hair and chiseled features. Asleep, he looked vulnerable, but she’d seen how he looked at Lila. He would die for her, he’d said as much. He was a strong, physically imposing young man, and Moira couldn’t be happier that in all the darkness her daughter had been forced into, she’d found the light in him. “They’ve been through so much.” She whispered, stroking Lila’s hair some more. “I hear you’ve got kids now, Alex.”

Alex nodded, “Yeah, got a little ahead of myself with a girlfriend while on leave during Vietnam, and ended up with Scott. Luckily, she married my fool ass and we’ve got Alex Jr. now too. Things are usually good, but she doesn’t like Scott being here alone. I’ve been trying to come visit more often. Kid and I don’t get along though. He’s too much of a goody-two-shoes like his mother.”

Moira smiled, “Let me guess, Alex is a hell-raiser just like his father?”

Alex grinned, “You got it in one. When he’s not in school, we’re out surfing. It’s great.”

Moira sighed, looking down at Lila, “I wonder what we’d’ve done together.”

They all jumped when Declan spoke, “You and I would play fight all the time still, you’d take Lila shopping with Granna and do a bunch of other girl things I would have no part of. The four of us would spend hours everyday looking in microscopes and coming up with new science stuff. We’re a bunch of nerds.” He chuckled, “Well, Lila’s only as smart as the smartest person in the room is. She’s got more heart than us though. Sometimes, I think that’s worth more.”

He had Parker at his side, and she smiled up at him, the innocent smile of a child who adored the person she was speaking to, “Declan, you’ve got heart.”

He smiled fondly, and she hugged his waist, “That’s what you think, Little Dove.”

“I know so.” She said sternly.

Declan sighed, “You girls are so pushy.” He pulled her up on his hip again, “Little Dove, where’s your mutt?”

Parker shrugged, “Rahne wanted to play with him. She took him outside.”

Declan nodded, “Ah, Rahne, our new aunt. She seems sweet.”

“She is.” Moira confirmed, looking to Hank, “Rahne’s doing well?”

Hank nodded, “She’s young, but eager to learn. Being around the other students has been good for her.”

“I’m so glad.” Moira said, holding an arm towards Declan. He sat on the opposite side from his twin, settling Parker into his lap and leaning against his mother. “Lila’s sleeping pretty heavily.” She commented.

“Good dreams though, so that’s an improvement.” Declan added, reaching across their mother to hold Lila’s hand in his own.

All three children were asleep within the half hour, and Moira was in heaven. She couldn’t have been happier, and not even Charles entering the room could spoil her mood. They continued like that for weeks, her staunchly avoiding Charles and Lila consistently visiting the boy in the medical wing.

In a way it all amused Moira and her mother to no end. As much as Lila refused to believe that she was in any way like Charles, they had the same taste in men. Garrett was a very close neighbor personality wise to Erik, and Moira had the sneaking suspicion that if it had been Erik who had rescued them that Garrett would have been his right hand man in an instant.

Everything was great until Charles let slip that there was an attack happening in Bayville. Lila was her daughter, and had instantly grabbed her brother and vanished to help the team. Twenty minutes later, Moira discovered that they’d taken a barely healed Garrett with them, leaving a note for her to please look after Parker.

After depositing the girl into her mother’s care, Moira had stalked to Charles’ office and yelled at him until the kids got back. They were tired, but unharmed. Lila looked unsettled, but had hugged her mother and headed to her room, Garrett in tow.

\----------

After taking a shower and cleaning himself of all the residual building debris and hospital smell, Garrett dressed in jeans and a button down shirt Lila had grabbed for him, expecting that they would need to make a showing for dinner to become a better part of the group they'd just fought side by side with.

He found Lila sitting on the bed she’d claimed as theirs, staring out the window unblinkingly. He sat next to her, but she didn’t react. “Lyles?” No reaction.

Getting worried, Garrett leaned closer to Lila, trailing his hand down the back of her neck to rest at the base of her spine. “Where’s your head at?”

Lila scoffed slightly, leaning into him as she did so, almost literally falling out of her trance. “I couldn’t tell you even if I knew.”

“Talk to me, Lyles.” He half begged, half ordered. He mostly ordered though. Garrett had learned a long time ago just how little begging helped.

“I don’t know what to say, Garrett, I really don’t. Helping those people, it felt so great, but once the dust settled, there was so much fear.” She shivered, curling against him, “They were terrified.”

“Of course, they almost died. That’s the natural reaction everyone besides us has when faced with their imminent demise.” Garrett said, using his power to search her for any injuries to explain her odd mood. There were none. Apparently the only injury she had sustained was to her mind.

“No, they weren’t afraid of death. They were afraid of us. Of mutants.” For the hundredth time in her life, Lila imagined what life would have been like if she and her brother had been born human. Garrett’s warm hand on her skin reminded her of what she would have missed out on. They would have never met, never fallen in love, and she would never give that up. Yes, the loss of their child would haunt her for all of her days, but with them both alive, there would always be a chance for more children, children they would both give their lives to protect.

Garrett kissed her neck, suddenly aching for her. It had been so long since he’d had her that his desire to distract her from her mournful thoughts merged with his youthful libido. “Stop thinking, Lila. You can do that in the morning.”

The kiss turned into a bite, and Lila groaned, “Garrett, my parents are downstairs, and my father's a world class telepath.”

“You said he couldn’t see into your mind.” Garrett commented, scraping his teeth over her skin as he spoke.

Lila turned to give him his favorite wry grin, “I said he couldn’t read my mind. I said nothing of yours.”

Garrett grinned back, “Well, the old man needs to learn to keep his brain to himself anyway. I’m not ashamed, are you?”

Lila smiled softly, “You would walk around naked all day if you thought you could get away with it. Not all of us are so brave.”

Garret sobered slightly, cupping her face in his hands, “You are brave, Lila, so much more than I am.” The corner of his mouth twitched up, “I’m shameless. There’s a difference.”

Lila turned the tables on him in an instant. While she wasn’t near as strong as he was, she was stronger than her slight frame suggested, so when she shoved him onto his back, he didn’t have the urge to resist her. Lila settled herself across him, eyes finally heated to match his own. She fingered the top button on his shirt, and leaned down, kissing his lips. “You’re shameless.” She whispered, undoing the button and kissing the now exposed skin, grazing her teeth across it. She repeated the action with each phrase she let wash over him, “You’re pigheaded. You’re rude. You’re harsh. You’re selfish.” Her kisses gentled, but were no less devastating to his rational mind. “You are brave, and you’re gentle, even when you don’t want to be. You make me feel safe. You make me feel at home.” She said the last phrase after laving at one of the scars he’d gotten from her wounds.

He sat up, shucking his shirt, shorts, and pulling her into his arms. “You are my home, Lila.” He whispered, pinning her arms above her head with one hand so he could pull her shirt off. She’d forgone a bra, so he rested his forehead between her breasts, “I missed you so much.”

“Sure you didn’t just miss this?” Lila asked, running a hand through his hair as he nuzzled into her.

Garrett ripped her shorts off, laying himself between her legs. “I missed all of you, silly girl.” She stiffened when his hand reached down to touch her most sacred spot. He pulled back immediately, “You okay, Lyles?”

Lila nodded slowly, kissing him, “Yeah, just be gentle. It’s been a while. And the last time...” She trailed off, turning her head to the side.

Garrett bit his lip for a second, keeping in words that would have only served to upset her before he finally pulled her into a sweet kiss, “We’ll get revenge, Lila. You know we will.”

The last time they’d been together had been the night before he’d been taken away. The night before they’d lost their child. “I can’t lose you.” Lila whispered.

Garrett slid himself into her slowly, her body giving very little in way of resistance. As he bottomed out inside of her, he kissed her, “Feel that? I’m right here, Lyles, and I won’t ever leave you again.”

She smirked at him, rolling her hips. “That might get kind of awkward. There’s some things my family just doesn’t need to see.”

Garrett chuckled, shaking his head, “I may be shameless, but you are incorrigible. Though if you wanted, I’d be glad to show everyone how it’s done.”

Lila laughed, and they both groaned at the sensation. She stared heatedly up at him, “Would you shut up and make love to me already?”

He looked contemplative for a moment before thrusting deeply, “Yeah, I think I can do that.” He toyed with her, bringing her to the edge so many times that she was begging him in the end, and when he gave her what she wanted, she cried out into his shoulder, biting down. That little edge of pain was enough to break his control, and he spilled inside her.

Lila was asleep a few minutes later, nestled safely in his arms. He’d never turn his back on her again, no matter what she decided. In the back of his mind, Garrett wondered if he’d just gotten her pregnant again, if they would have a chance to do it all again. He lay a hand on her lower belly and kissed her temple, closing his eyes to sleep, marveling at the fact that he wanted her to be pregnant again. As badly as the loss of their first child had hurt, they’d come through it, and he’d been left with the distinct feeling that he wanted children more than anything. And he would have no one but Lila be their mother.

The animalistic side of his brain he kept so well hidden knew without a doubt that Lila was it, his mate, life partner, whatever term applied, he would never love anyone besides her. That was why the thought of her callously getting rid of their baby had hurt so much. The animal in him had nearly torn itself to pieces wondering how sweet, protective Lila could have possibly been so different than he had thought. She wasn’t though. Lila was every bit the sweet protective girl he loved, and he smiled when her hand moved to lay across his own just before he drifted to sleep.

Lila was gone when he woke up, but he could feel her through the mental bridge she’d rebuilt between them since their reunion. He followed it downstairs, but stilled in the hallway. “Holy fuck.” He whispered to himself. There, in the usually vacant hallway was Lila’s twin. The brat wasn’t talking though, no, instead his mouth was being consumed by the boy from the afternoon before, the one the X-men had called Quicksilver. Declan had his legs wrapped around the other boy’s waist, and Garrett had seen enough, practically running away.

Lila was in the kitchen with Logan, sipping on a mug of hot chocolate while the Wolverine sucked down a beer, “Hey, Gare.” She looked back at him over her shoulder, “You okay?”

Garrett looked over his shoulder, skin crawling, “Uh...um...yeah, I’m fine. Might want to check the parasite for hickey’s though, and one of those Brotherhood douches is in the house.” He directed the last part to Logan, figuring if the older man broke them up it would be a whole hell of a lot less awkward. He’d never look at Lila’s twin the same way again though.

Logan growled, exiting the kitchen to hunt down the intruder, while Lila just frowned, “What?” She must have linked to her twin because she paled, face curling in disgust, “Oh, God, that’s just nasty.”’

“Sorry.” Garrett said, chuckling at her expression. “Guess you’re not the only one that likes the bad boy.” He called to her, head in the refrigerator.

“Must run in the family.” Lila said dryly, recalling the stories her mother had told her about her father and a man named Erik in an attempt to get her to not want to fry Professor Charles Xavier's brain every time she laid eyes on him. She caught a glimpse of the bottle in Garrett’s hand, “A beer? It’s nine o’ clock in the morning.”

Garrett raised his bottle in a mock salute, “What can I say, being twenty-one is great, that and it’ll irritate Logan.”

“He’s not going to fight you.” Lila said sternly.

“Damnit, Lyles, that would be fun.” He protested playfully, taking a swig of the amber liquid.

“You’d get your ass kicked.” Lila supplied, flipping through the papers in front of her.

“What are you reading?” Garrett asked, leaning over her shoulder and kissing her cheek, ignoring her rude deduction in favor of being close to her again.

“Bank records for the Facility.” She answered quietly.

Garrett tried not to react, knowing that she didn’t need words to know how the mere mention of that place made him feel, “That’s dull reading.”

“Well it was a distraction from having Logan sniff and glare at me. That nose of his is highly invasive.” She giggled slightly, “Also, he’d like us to not have sex on school grounds again. It 'set’s a bad example'.”

“He’s just jealous.” Garrett said assuredly, nuzzling her cheek. “So, I’m feeling better, you and the parasite are feeling better. Why don’t we go explore the town today?”

“Explore?” Lila asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

He tugged on the edges of his leather jacket, “Yeah, see the world, on our own. I know you went out with the Kitty and Jean, but I’ve never been out like that before. Going to keep some people from getting axed doesn’t count.”

Lila rolled her eyes, “You just want leather pants to match your jacket.”

Garrett scoffed, “You will never see me in leather pants. Sorry, Lyles, but no.”

“Aww, you’d be hot though.” Lila told him, looking to the door, “Morning, Mum.”

Moira entered a moment later, “Where was Logan running to?”

Lila shrugged, she’d had years to come to terms with her brother’s sexuality, their mother hadn’t. She wasn't going to out him. “No clue. Someone probably stole a beer.”

Moira eyed her daughter critically, “You never could lie to me, but I’ll let that slide. Your Granna’s leaving today.”

“What?” Lila chirped, shocked.

“Charles found a young mutant in Ireland, and it’s his belief that Mum will be able to connect with the girl.” Moira explained, pushing some of her daughter’s auburn hair out of her face. “She’s getting packed up but wanted to give you a few things first.”

Lila abandoned her mug into Garrett’s waiting hand, watching through his eyes as he poured his beer into it and disposed of the bottle while she climbed the stairs. “Granna?” She called as she entered the room her mother and grandmother had been sharing.

Grace smiled at her, “There ye ar’, sweetheart.”

“I thought you’d stick around longer.” Lila said, drifting onto the bed.

Grace laughed softly, “Tha’ big brain o’ yoors should a seen ‘his one coming.”

Lila nodded, “I should have, but I’ve been making a concerted effort to keep my big brain to myself.” The two shared a fond smile, “Mum said you had something for me?”

Grace sighed, “Yes, a name. Bolivar Trask.”

“Bolivar...Trask?” Lila echoed.

Grace nodded in confirmation, “He’s a scientist I believe you would be interested in speaking to.”

“Why?” Lila asked, resisting the urge to use her power to find out.

“Because the name of his program, that blessedly failed, is carved into your lover’s flesh. That program was meant to hunt and destroy mutants. An odd coincidence, don’ ye think?” There was an odd glint in her grandmother’s eyes that she didn’t like.

“What?” Lila asked a second before she tore down the hallway, back to Garrett. “Take off your shirt!” She yelled.

“What?” Garrett said, an amused smile on his face.

“Shirt. Off. Now!” Lila ordered, her heart racing.

Garrett’s cocky grin fell off of his face and into a frown. He shrugged off his jacket, and was half way through folding it neatly when Lila grabbed his arm, the one with the swirling tattoo he’d woken up with one day shortly after his fifteenth birthday. She examined him clinically, shoving his short sleeve up so she could see all of his tattoo, her fingers trailing over the scars under the ink. “Lila, what’s wrong?” He asked using his free arm to touch her shoulder.

She gasped softly, “Oh God. She’s right.”

“Lila, talk to me before I start throttling you.” Garrett growled.

“Sentinel.” She said, voice hardly a whisper, “Under your tattoo and the whip scars. The word Sentinel.” She turned to the doorway much as she had when Moira had entered, though the woman had since left the kitchen and Garrett alone. Charles wheeled in instead. Lila shook Garrett’s arm, “What does this mean? Tell me!”

Charles was trying to sort through her rapid thoughts, so his reply was a few seconds later than she would have liked. “They were machines, but Erik...er...Magneto proved them too easily manipulated and turned, so the project was abandoned.”

“Then why the hell would someone carve this into him?” Lila asked furiously. Her eyes travelled to her mother, who had just entered the room. The woman was wondering what had brought on Lila’s revelation. Lila tore away from Garrett and ran in the direction of her grandmother’s room, knocking her brother to the side in her frustration, “Granna!” The door was open, but the room was empty, “Damnit!”

Declan stood at her side, “Where’s Granna?”

“Gone. Creepy and gone. Seems you’re not the only one in this family with secrets.” Lila hissed, stalking back to the kitchen to flesh out the problem, leaving her twin swaying in the doorway with a pale face.


	8. Children

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this took so long! I got stuck on this story, but I think I've got it worked out now. Probably going to watch DOFP again this weekend, so that should help!
> 
> Please let me know what you think in the comments!  
> -Jenn

Charles was oddly pleased that his daughter was finally talking to him. Sure, she was postulating the fact that perhaps their kidnappings and subsequent training had been the result of him not letting Raven and Erik kill a man, but she wasn’t glaring at him from across the room anymore.

The young woman was infuriating. He could handle Jean, and he could handle Rogue, but Delilah was like the worst qualities in both of them had been combined. He hadn’t meant to let her know that the X-Men team had gone, but she had gleaned it from his mind during a session of Moira forcing them to all sit in the same room. Her power was strong, possibly a power that would rival his once she fully developed, but so was Jean’s telepathy, in addition to her telekinesis. Lila already had a far better handle on her telepathy than Jean though. During the crisis Lila had taken charge of the civilians, using the image projector to stand on the podium and push her will on all of the five hundred people in the auditorium and having them evacuate safely. In the end, no one had been injured.

That was when he figured out that her power of persuasion rested behind her hazel eyes. One glance up to the screen, and she’d snatched control of their bodies from them, forcing them to stand and exit in an orderly manner. Her eyes were the strings, and she made them all her puppets. The possibilities were terrifying. He and Jean had limitations, he could only reach so far with the help of Cerebro, and certainly couldn’t control so many people at the same time. If they hadn’t found her, would her captors have figured out that facet of her ability and sat her in front of a camera to order mutant viewers to kill themselves? Lila would have done it if they had threatened harm to Declan or Garrett.

Charles couldn’t judge that too harshly. Once upon a time, he would probably have done the same for Raven and Erik.

Through Jean’s mind he’d watched Garrett fight. He’d been slow at first, his injuries making themselves known, but he’d seemed to have stretched it out after a few minutes. Finally getting to see the young man’s offensive mutation in action Charles came to the conclusion that the real secret to his ability to master weapons was a combination of a body at the peak of physical condition, a rather brilliant mind for his brash attitude, and a short term precognitive ability. Garrett could see himself using a weapon in his mind once he picked it up, and in the following seconds his body and mind would align with the vision, making it seem like he’d been born with the weapon in hand. Pipes, shards of glass, door frames, it didn’t matter. He was truly fascinating to watch.

Declan had been incredible to watch too. He’d seen his son through Ororo’s mind while they were escaping their captivity, but now that he wasn’t internally panicking, Declan was far more controlled. His teleportations weren’t much different from Kurt’s, but he was faster, more confident, and used his thin body like an acrobat.

All three of them were silent to him, with the exception of Garrett when Lila was particularly distracted, then he would get a stray thought.

And she was very, very distracted, back to looking at Garrett’s arm in the lights of the sitting room Moira had gathered them in after they had all returned. 

The boy was shocked still, his mind grasping blindly through his past, trying to remember when someone had carved into his arm and how he hadn’t noticed. The realization came slowly to them both. The tattoo had arrived after a whipping that had scarred him just before winter had come. And that winter was the one where Lila had taught him to read.

Charles delved deeper into the young man’s brain, leaving him behind. All he remembered was that place. There was no life before. Garrett had been born into that laboratory, marked as a toddler, and when the time came that he might have been able to read the mark on his arm, it was hidden. The children weren’t supposed to know.

They weren’t supposed to know that they’d been stolen from their families and homes to serve as replacements for failed killing machines.

They were never meant to know, but now Charles did. He knew the secret, the whole purpose behind the compound filled with mutant children.

They had been killing mutants.

All those years. All those mysterious deaths and a whole string of suicides.

Children.

Innocent looking children who’s only motive was to kill or be killed.

His children.

His children, who he would have showered with anything their hearts had desired, who he would have protected with his life, were forced into lives that should have never touched them. By thrusting Moira from his life, he’d damned his own children.

But they weren’t children, not anymore.

He over powered Lila, linking into her mind. She was a killer. They all were, but she was crafty, not one to get her hands dirty. Instead, she helped people find their own graves, bumping into them in a hallway, catching their eyes with hers, forcing a smile and whispering a few words fed to her by her captors before her brother returned her to her room. She was more like Raven than Charles cared to admit. Garrett and Declan on the other hand, were extremely hands on. They hadn’t killed anyone at the auditorium, but he knew that was only because they hadn’t been ordered to.

Garrett the trained soldier and Declan the acrobat. That left Lila as the ringleader. They sat, a boy on either side of her, the child she’d adopted in her lap.

The door to her mind slammed shut so quickly it startled him out of his thoughts, looking up into her livid hazel eyes. “Stay out of my head, Old Man.” Lila growled, “It’s not a nice place to be.”

“No, it’s not, you poor, poor child.” Charles said softly, his guilt building.

“Don’t pity me. Pity yourself.” Lila snapped jumping to her feet, sliding Parker into the seat she’d vacated. She stalked forward, standing a foot from him so that she towered over him, “You get to live knowing that my brother and I would have been free if you’d killed Trask. We all would have been free. Everything that’s gone wrong in my life is because of you.”

Lila spat the last word at him and tore out of the room. Garrett sighed, gesturing to Declan to keep his seat, “Relax, I’ll get her.”

Declan shook his head, disgruntled, and hauled Parker up onto his hip, “Nah, we all need a break from this shit.”

“Don’t you dare!” Garrett yelled, recoiling a second too late, and Declan grabbed his arm.

“Declan!” Moira snapped as the three young mutants vanished. Charles stared at her, looking every bit a bedraggled mother as she sighed in exasperation and settled back down in her chair to stare back at him, “She’s wrong. It’s not your fault. You didn’t know. None of us did. All we can do now is try to fix this.”

“How is it not my fault, Moira? She’s right. Had I not pushed you away, they never would have been in harms way.”

She shook her head, “If I had given more care to pick them up from school, they never would have been alone on that road to be taken in the first place.”

Charles regarded her differently, “I can’t imagine that these people would have given up.”

An expression he’d only recently seen on their daughter’s face crossed Moira’s, “You can’t imagine how I felt when they weren’t home when I go there. You can’t imagine the terror I lived with the moment their teacher said they’d left to walk home hours ago. I will live with that guilt, Charles. You didn’t know about them. You don’t have to look at them everyday and remember what that gaping hole in your chest feels like. I take back what I said before, about pitying you. I pity myself because that hole will never not be there. I’ll never forget the all the times my mother found me laying in their room crying in the middle of the night. I will never forget, and I’ll never be able to tell them about it. I have to keep strong. Because if I show weakness, I’ll lose them all over again.”

Charles wheeled closer, holding one of her hands in his, “I don’t think you will ever lose them, Moira. They don’t blame you. They love you unconditionally. Me, they blame. Me, they only tolerate because you expect them to. We can’t keep this holding pattern up much longer, not with the Sentinel connection. Any ideas?”

Moira squeezed his hand before pulling it away, pulling a small note pad out of her jacket pocket, “What are the odds that a man like Trask would put all of his eggs in one basket?”

Charles hummed, “You don’t think they’re the only ones?” He chuckled, “Sometimes I forget you were part of the CIA.”

Moira giggled, smiling at him, “Sometimes, I do too.” She looked back down at her notepad and shrugged, “Anyone crazy enough to kidnap over two dozen kids would have to be crazy to have them all in one location. Too easily compromised. A second unit would ensure the continuation of the project in the event that the first was infiltrated.”

Charles glanced out the window, where he could see Kitty and Jean talking with Lila while Parker, Declan, and Garrett chased the dog around, “There’s something else on your mind.”

Moira sat her pad down, taking a deep breath, “Lila told me that she was pregnant, she told me that they forced an abortion. It didn’t sit right with me when she told me, and now that Trask is involved, it makes less sense.”

“How so?” Charles asked, swallowing back bile at one more reminder of how they had been violated. He couldn’t imagine how that made Lila feel, to have the last untainted right she had ripped away. He felt that much more guilty for violating her mind, and didn’t blame her for her volatile reaction.

Moira shifted unconsciously forward, her eyes bright with excitement, “These people treated the children like zoo animals, lab rats even, all based on them being mutants, and what better opportunity to study mutant genetics than when you have the child of two mutants under surveillance from the moment of conception. No scientist would give up that opportunity. A controlled environment would ensure no outside influences. It would give tremendous insight into what makes a mutant a mutant. Exposure to radiation, certain toxins? Simple recessive genetic traits recombined in the DNA and designed to surface under particular situations.”

Charles was tempted to delve into her mind, but he respected her more than that. “What are you suggesting, Moira?”

“No one saw Lila for months after they dragged her away. She’s not lying, I can tell, but would someone have been able to alter her memories like you did mine? I don’t know if it would work differently because she’s a telepath or...”

“She could have done it to herself.” Charles said, interrupting her, “Lila needs eye contact for her directive power to work. But yes, in theory, put her in front of a mirror, and she should be able to make herself forget.”

“If she thinks her child is dead, she’d be easier to control. She wouldn’t be trying to reach her child, she’d be weak, docile.” Moira shivered, “We can’t tell her.”

“Why not?”

Moira looked up into his face, “If we told her there was a chance her child was alive, but then found out we were wrong, that hope would kill her.”

Charles gleaned a stray thought from her, one she was unconsciously projecting. She’d almost been there herself. A year after Declan and Delilah vanished, two young children had been found wandering in the forest. Moira had been told that they were her children, but when she rushed to the hospital where they were being looked over, they weren’t. They’d ended up being children who belonged to a couple a town over who had gotten lost in the forest. Moira had been devastated. That was why her mother had come first, to protect her daughter in case it was another false report.

“We don’t tell her then, but we have to consider the idea in the remainder of our plans.” Charles decided, getting a nod of agreement from Moira before he added his own revelations, “Garrett was never kidnapped. Would it be possible for you to determine his parents if I gave you access to Hank’s lab and DNA samples?” Moira frowned slightly then, “I have reason to believe that young Garrett may have been the start of all of this.”

Moira took in a sharp breath, but shifted so as to not make things seem out of the ordinary, “You think Garrett is Trask’s son, don’t you? He would have been born just after Cuba, when mutants became known. Trask must have analyzed his DNA, seen the mutated cells and thrown him into a lab.” Her gaze travelled out the window to the young man, “Trask would have had to have started his research somewhere.”

Charles nodded, “Past Trask’s Dwarfism, the two share several visible markers. With the Sentinel connection, it’s not a huge leap to make. The boy has no memories of a life before that facility.”

“That’s awful.” Moira whispered, watching out the window as the boy in question threw Lila over his shoulder and spun around, both laughing.

Charles was watching them too, “She is the only bright spot in his life.” In an instant of calm, Charles’ mind linked with Lila’s, and she instinctually drew him into a memory she cherished.

It began with her drowning.

*************

She couldn’t breath, struggling to keep her head above the water as her weak uncoordinated limbs flailed around uselessly. There was a boy in the water too, a few years older, and not panicking at all, treading water easily, breathing slowly, methodically.

“Help me!” Lila cried, sputtering on water.

“Swim!” The boy yelled back.

Her heart was racing, lungs burning from the salt water she kept choking on, limbs uncoordinated and failing at keeping her head above the water. “I don’t know how!”

The boy stared at her in disbelief for a few seconds before he got angry. “You’re the damned telepath, read my mind or drown!”

“I can’t!” She yelled again, the current finally pulling her completely under.

She hung in the water, which seemed much more still than the surface, more peaceful, and for an instant, she’d entertained the idea of just giving up, to stop moving and take that last lethal amount of water into her lungs. She didn’t get the chance. A strong arm pulled her back up to the surface, slung her to the right, and then she was pinned to a firm chest with her back against the wall. The boy.

He was holding her with one arm and clinging to a bar over two feet above the water with the other hand. She’d find out later that the bar was a misnomer, it was superheated, and it hurt him every second he hung on to keep her from drowning. “Come on, kid, use your power and start swimming or we’ll both drown.” He hissed into her ear, “I can’t keep us up for long. There’s at least another half hour before they drain the room. You have to swim.”

“I don’t know how.” She said weakly, clinging to him.

“Take it from my mind.” He gritted out, “You can do that, right? So do it.”

She obeyed, pulling the information from his mind, how the movements of her limbs were supposed to feel, and after a few minutes, she was keeping her head above water without too much hassle, even when he let her go. “Haha!” The boy whooped triumphantly. “There you go, kid!” She was tired though, and after a half hour, she began to slow, her body shutting down from exhaustion. The boy yelled again, “Hey, heads up!”

Lila couldn’t really hear him. She’d drifted back below the water. The water level in the room was dropping though, so he managed to hold her mostly unconscious body above the water until his feet touched the floor again. He’d laid her out, resting her head on his knees, “Kid, don’t you die on me, not now. You made it.” He pushed her wet hair out of her face, and took a deep breath before pulling her injuries into himself. He spluttered a few times, but was alert and energized enough to purge the water from his lungs that she had been unable to do so with.

“Thank you.” She whispered, still exhausted even though it no longer hurt to breathe and she wasn’t almost drowning.

He shrugged, “No problem, kid. I’m Garrett.”

She smiled blearily up at him, “Lila. Call me Lila.”

*************

The girl in question pushed Charles out of her head, but it didn’t appear she’d noticed his intrusion. She was laying on the grass, smilingat the young man, much the way her mother had once smiled at Charles, and it made his chest ache a little. He’d had Moira’s love, and he’d pushed her away. He’d never really had Erik’s love, but he would fight everyday to get him back. Charles would be the first to admit that he wasn’t all that sane, and looking between his two kids outside on the lawn, he could tell that they weren’t either. But like him, they were brilliant at playing the part.

“Charles?” Moira’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

He blinked at the woman, “I’m sorry, just...thinking.” She smiled at him, and it wasn’t the same as the smile she’d once given him. It was better. Better because, he could reciprocate it fully. He smiled back, “I lose myself more quickly in my old age.”

Moira shook her head, gesturing to the door, “Why don’t we join them? Leave all the heavy talk for later?”

Charles nodded, “After you, my friend.” The smile she shot him in response was enough to make his mood rebound entirely from talk of Trask and Sentinels. He may not have Erik’s friendship, but at least he’d begun repairing the one he shared with Moira.

They got stopped by students several times, delaying their arrival onto the lawn, where Jean was watching from a chair, a book in her hand. She smiled up at them, “Hello, Professor, Dr. MacTaggert.”

Moira laughed softly, “It’s Moira, please.” She looked out at the lawn, “Oh, guess we missed all the fun.”

They had. The four young mutants were all laying in the grass, Lila with her head on Garrett’s chest, her brother leaning against the inside of her bent knees with Parker stretched across him, her head on the dog that followed her everywhere. They were all fast asleep, basking in the sunlight that they’d been so long hidden from.

Lila’s defenses were low, but all he got were the dreams floating through the forefront of their minds. Good dreams, for the first time since they’d come. Lila in particular was dreaming about a little boy toddling between her and Garrett.

Charles’ chin jerked towards Moira. “A boy.” He switched to his telepathy, not wanting to share anymore with Jean than he had to. “ _Lila wouldn’t be able to fully erase every trace of her child. She’s dreaming of a little boy.”_

_“What does that mean for us?”_

_“It means that we’ll be able to narrow down the probability of mutation further. Predict Trask’s likely reactions from there. If the child isn’t a mutant, Trask would keep him close. How long will it take you to test Garrett’s DNA against Trask’s?”_ Charles asked.

Moira bent down to kiss him on the cheek, “I’ll come find you in an hour or two. I’ve got some research questions for Hank. Enjoy the sun like the kids, your bald head’s looking a little pale.”

“Thank you, Moira.” Charles said, smiling at her.

She smiled back, albeit a little wistfully, “They’re my kids too. Even the ones that aren’t. You’re not sending me away again.”

Charles grimaced, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Good.” She said shortly, walking away and leaving him to himself.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want more, write me a comment! Kudos are welcome too!  
> -Jenn


End file.
